Ready for Recovery: Four Reasons to Invest in Natural Gas and Oil Infrastructure
Mike Sommers
Posted January 5, 2021
As we begin the new year, it’s worth recognizing that the challenges facing our lawmakers are immense. But with consensus-driven approaches, we believe the public and private sectors can partner to deliver post-pandemic recovery and long-term economic growth for America.
Of course, rebuilding the nation’s economy will require realistic and workable energy solutions – ones that prioritize resource development and infrastructure expansion. Here’s why investing in modern energy infrastructure can build pathways for economic and environmental progress:
- Energy-related development generates good-paying jobs: Employees in the natural gas and oil industry earn $45,000 more annually than the average American, and studies show that workers appreciate jobs in natural gas and oil over the “green-collar” sector because our industry pays better and provides better career opportunities.
- Pipeline projects support local economies: The Keystone XL, Dakota Access, Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines, to name just a few, benefit local economies through increased employment and greater tax revenues. Unfortunately, bureaucratic red tape and activist-driven lawsuits have impeded progress on pipeline projects that stand to contribute millions of dollars in local wages and resolve infrastructure bottlenecks that prevent access to affordable energy.
- Pipelines are efficient and environmentally friendly: America’s extensive energy infrastructure network – with transmission pipelines stretching more than 500,000 miles – connects our natural gas- and oil-producing regions with businesses and households across the U.S. Pipelines remain the safest, most environmentally friendly method of transporting natural gas and oil, providing the essential link between domestic energy production and modern life.
- Energy development is popular: Two-thirds of U.S. voters are more likely to support a candidate who endorses domestic natural gas and oil development, according to recent polling from Morning Consult. The majority of respondents also recognize the value of natural gas and oil in their personal lives and appreciate energy affordability.
Democrats, Republicans and Independents agree that natural gas and oil are important to the nation’s future energy mix, and we should embrace this forward-looking, bipartisan approach to economic growth and energy security. Together, we can reinvest in our nation’s infrastructure and expand access to American-made fuels.
About The Author
Mike Sommers is the 15th chief executive of API since its founding more than a century ago. Prior to coming to API, Mike led the American Investment Council, a trade association representing many of the nation’s leading private equity and growth capital firms and other business partners. He spent two decades in critical staff leadership positions in the U.S. House of Representatives and the White House, including chief of staff for then-House Speaker John Boehner. Mike is a native of Naperville, Illinois, and a graduate of the honors program at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Mike and Jill Sommers, a former commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, have three children and live in Alexandria, Virginia.