API Speaks to Interior Department

Jane Van Ryan
Posted January 27, 2010

Today the American Petroleum Institute (API) offered comments responding to allegations that API President and CEO Jack Gerard misrepresented facts about oil and natural gas leasing:

"Mr. Gerard stands by his facts. Interior doesn't rebut one--and can't. The bottom line is that Interior is not moving forward with leasing to provide for America's energy future, which would also create thousands of jobs for Americans and generate billions of dollars in government revenue.

Interior's attack on the veracity of Mr. Gerard's comments is pure dissimulation. It fails to address Mr. Gerard's point that leased acreage plunged in 2009 and concedes that lease revenues collapsed by more than 90 percent during the first year of this Interior Department.

As an industry that supports more than 9.2 million American jobs, we stand ready to work with the department to create more energy and more jobs."