WASHINGTON, March 20, 2012 – In
remarks to reporters this morning, API’s President and CEO Jack Gerard announced a new API campaign to clarify the facts about gasoline prices and help bring changes in energy policy that could create jobs and put downward pressure on prices. The campaign features a
new website and includes
new advertising:
“The American people see that supply matters on prices. Sending a clear message to people who buy and sell crude oil that the United States is committed to reasserting itself as one of the world’s major oil producers would put downward pressure on gasoline and other fuel prices.
“We urge the administration to promote more domestic resources of oil and natural gas. Provide more access to ample U.S. supplies. Approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Temper the drive for layer upon layer of new regulations. And abandon proposals to impose on the industry billions of dollars in new taxes that would harm investment in the U.S. and the jobs that go with it.
“Most U.S. resources have been placed off-limits. The U.S. oil and natural gas industry is currently allowed to explore, develop and produce on less than 15 percent of the federal offshore areas. More than 85 percent of those areas are off limits, denying all Americans the benefit of producing those resources … benefits like greater supplies of crude oil and natural gas, job creation and significant returns to our treasury in taxes, rents, royalties and bonus bids.
“With a strong public commitment to more development, with the right pro-development policies,
and with more rapid approvals for new oil and gas projects already in the works, we could create one million additional jobs in as few as seven years and help bring prices down. We have the resources, the human capital, the technology, and the willingness to invest to make this level of development happen.”
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.