API says Senate energy bill threatens jobs, economic growth

Cathy Landry | 202.682.8114 | landryc@api.org

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2010 — The Senate bill unveiled today by Majority Leader Harry Reid moves forward with provisions that will cost American jobs, slow economic growth and will place our energy security at risk, according to a statement by American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard:

“While full details of the Senate bill are not yet available, the liability provision sticks out as a jobs killer. Requiring an unattainable level of insurance coverage for domestic energy producers on the Outer Continental Shelf will force the vast majority of American companies out of U.S. waters, according to insurers. This would cut domestic production, kill American jobs, slow economic growth and cost billions in federal oil and natural gas revenues.

“Even those that could self insure operations would see costs skyrocket, driving investments out of the United States, further hurting our economy, employment and energy security, according to a recent analysis by Wood Mackenzie.

“While we are glad that the bill recognizes the need to analyze the economic repercussions of the current deepwater moratorium, a better tack would have been to repeal it. Majority Leader Reid suggests his bill will create 150,000 new jobs, but our analysis indicates that failing to develop in the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico will cost more than that – 175,000 jobs, the majority of them in already hard-hit Gulf Coast communities. Clearly, that is not a win for Americans.”