API says House-passed spill bill anti-jobs, anti-consumer, anti-energy

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2010 — The House spill bill that passed today 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:

"The House bill passed today will kill jobs, threaten our fragile economic recovery and place our energy security at risk. This is an anti-jobs, anti-consumer and anti-energy bill. Instead of addressing the risks of offshore development by improving safety and establishing a robust system for covering the costs of possible future accidents, this bill effectively bans development and sends thousands of workers in offshore communities to the unemployment lines.

"The unlimited liability provisions will drive the vast majority of American companies out of U.S. waters because they will not be able to obtain insurance coverage. Those remaining will be subject to huge cost hikes, reducing energy production, economic growth, American jobs and government revenues.

"While the House recognized that the deepwater moratorium is a jobs killer, we need real action and call on the administration to lift the moratorium to allow our people to get back to work. The inability to develop in the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico, whether through an explicit moratorium or through policies that create a de-facto moratorium, will cost more than 175,000 jobs a year, the majority of them in already hard-hit Gulf Coast communities.

"Americans want and deserve improvements in offshore safety and this can be accomplished without putting thousands of people out of work and increasing the nation’s reliance on foreign sources of energy."

Updated: July 30, 2010