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API New York calls on state leaders to embrace consumer, job and environmental benefits of natural gas


Reid Porter | porterr@api.org | 202.682.8114


ALBANY, NY, April 20, 2017 – API New York Executive Director Karen Moreau called for a course correction on energy by New York’s leadership, and she stressed the important impact clean-burning natural gas can have on jobs, government revenue, and lowering carbon emissions.

“New York can no longer afford to deny the role natural gas is playing in U.S. climate progress, job creation and economic growth,” said Moreau. “The United States is the global leader in refining and production of oil and natural gas while also leading the world in reducing carbon emissions because of advances in hydraulic fracturing.

“Local investments in energy infrastructure could create thousands of additional jobs throughout New York while helping to deliver affordable, reliable, clean-burning natural gas to consumers. You can’t practically grow the use of intermittent renewables without natural gas generation that is available to provide electricity every day and flexible enough to ensure reliability. The governor’s own energy plan assumes significant growth in natural gas use, but we can neither produce it nor transport it in our state. This essentially stalls needed infrastructure investments, and has forced New England consumers to pay higher energy costs.”

The Empire State is home to a large amount of natural gas reserves and – despite New York’s reliance on the resource from neighboring states – the governor instituted a ban on hydraulic fracturing in 2014. The decision meant that the economic benefits from shale energy development would continue in at least 30 other states, including neighboring Pennsylvania – where industry activity is generating billions in tax revenues, allowing the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars to communities, and has provided billions of dollars in royalty payments to private landowners. 

“With each opportunity, decisions continue to be made that could raise costs significantly for New York families and manufacturers,” said Moreau. “Next door in Pennsylvania, natural gas development is creating jobs and fueling local economies as farmers have reinvigorated their operations over the past decade with lease and royalty payments paid by energy companies. Affordable natural gas is also attracting more manufacturers to invest and relocate to the state.”

Moreau is a native to Upstate New York and has documented what missed opportunities for local energy production have meant for her neighbors, struggling farmers and job-starved communities who see the potential benefits of natural gas production being kept out of reach by the state’s ban on hydraulic fracturing. “The Empire State Divide,” a 22-minute film produced by Moreau, records economic and political conditions in the state’s southern tier.

API New York is a division of API, which represents all segments of America’s oil and natural gas industry. Its more than 625 members produce, process, and distribute most of the nation’s energy. The industry also supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. 

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