Robert Dodge | 202-682-8127 | dodger@api.org
WASHINGTON, January 26, 2009 – The American Petroleum Institute today issued the following statement:
"API supports President Obama’s desire to fortify the nation’s energy security with a comprehensive energy policy. The oil and natural gas industry, which supports 6 million workers, stands ready to advance those national goals and we urge policymakers to proceed with plans to extend new leases on non-park federal lands and waters to develop energy resources that belong to the American people.
However, the President’s directive to the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its denial of California’s request for a waiver that stopped California and 13 other states from implementing their own limits on auto emissions is not the way to go on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Creating a patchwork regulatory structure across multiple states would most likely impose higher costs on consumers, slow economic growth and kill U.S. jobs. The oil and natural gas industry already is doing its part: Since 2000, it has invested $42 billion into zero- and low-carbon research and development – that’s 45% of all spending by U.S. companies and the federal government, combined.
Climate change is a global issue that affects all nations, and API supports an open, fact-based public debate to create a federal policy on reducing greenhouse gas emissions."