DENVER, June 7, 2012 - The American Petroleum Institute today hosted an “Energy, Jobs and the Economy Town Hall Meeting” in Denver to highlight the job-creating potential – more than 88,000 new jobs – of new U.S. energy production for Colorado.
The API event is a part of its ongoing election-year energy conversation, “
Vote4Energy.”
“Now, really for the first time in our lifetime, we are an energy-rich nation that no longer lives in a world of energy scarcity,” said API President and CEO Jack Gerard. “Elected officials and candidates need to hear from voters about the energy challenges they face, and why making the right decisions on energy is so important for our future.”
Gerard said that Americans are living in what can credibly be described as a ‘post-scarcity’ energy world. “It’s a simple concept with profound implications,” he said.
The Energy Information Administration predicts the world will need 45 percent more energy in 2035. And, despite rapidly expanding renewable energy sources, government projections show the U.S. will still rely on oil and natural gas to supply more than half of its energy for decades to come.
“The question facing America is not whether we will continue to need oil and natural gas in the decades to come,” Gerard said. “The question is: where will we get it?”
Gerard added that safe and responsible development of more U.S. onshore and offshore energy resources would strengthen U.S. energy security and,
according to a recent report, could mean $800 billion in additional government revenues and 1.4 million new jobs by 2030.
The oil and natural gas industry
provides more than 161,000 good, high-paying jobs to Colorado residents. The average salary for these jobs is nearly $50,000 more than those jobs outside the industry.
“With sensible energy development and tax policies, an additional 88,283 jobs can be created for hard-working Coloradoans by 2020,” said Gerard.
API represents more than 500 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America's energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.