WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012 – API’s Chief Economist John Felmy
told reporters this morning that the proposal now before the Senate to raise taxes on selected oil and natural gas companies ignores what could really work to reduce gasoline prices and help our economy: create jobs and produce at home more of the oil and natural gas we know our nation will be using:
“A recent Gallup poll shows the nation has little confidence our government is moving in the right direction on energy. Unfortunately, the discriminatory tax proposal before the Senate today aimed at a handful of oil and natural gas companies isn’t going to inspire more. The proposal – which is expected to fail with bipartisan opposition – is a political distraction from high gasoline prices and our nation’s failed energy policies.
“Solving our energy and economic challenges requires a different approach. It requires doing something we know works: producing at home more of the oil and natural gas that our nation will need for decades to come. While the economy has been struggling, our industry has been an engine of job creation and energy production. For example, in 2011, we created 150,000 jobs, almost one in every ten of all created nationwide, according to a study by the World Economic Forum and IHS-CERA.
“If our companies are permitted to produce more of America’s ample oil and natural gas resources, they’ll create even more jobs, more government revenue for critical programs, and more energy security. It’s time to stop bringing up the same bad proposals again and again and take action that actually helps address the real energy and economic problems Americans are facing.”
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.