Bill Bush | 202-682-8069 | bushw@api.org
WASHINGTON, June 15, 2009 - U.S.-based oil and natural gas companies invested $58.4 billion from 2000 through 2008 in technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study by T² and Associates and the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas. This was more than was invested by either the federal government or by all other U.S.-based private industries combined. It was 44 percent of the total invested by all U.S.-based private industry and the federal government.
The data for the study - Key Investments in Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Technologies by Energy Firms, Other Industry and the Federal Government - came from over 420 company annual reports, federal budget documents, and other public sources.
Oil and gas company investments fell into three categories. Some $30.6 billion went into advanced end-use technologies, such as combined heat and power (cogeneration), carbon capture and storage, and advanced vehicles. Fuel substitution - where a lower greenhouse gas emission fuel such as natural gas was substituted for a higher one - accounted for $21.1 billion. And more than $6.7 billion supported development of non-hydrocarbon energy sources, such as wind, biofuels and solar power.
Investment by oil and gas companies in non-hydrocarbon technologies amounted to 22 percent of the total for all U.S.-based private industry and the federal government. The top non-hydrocarbon investments by oil and gas companies were in wind and biofuels.
Other U.S.-based industries invested an estimated $55.3 billion in greenhouse gas mitigation. The federal government invested an estimated $19.2 billion. Altogether, the government and all U.S.-based industries, including oil and gas companies, invested about $132.9 billion.
The study, commissioned by API, updates an earlier similar study that surveyed investments made over the period 2000-2006.
Updated: June 15, 2009