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Petroleum Council highlights benefits of energy development to Colorado jobs, economic growth and state revenue


Reid Porter | porterr@api.org | 202.682.8114



DENVER, February 8, 2017 – Colorado Petroleum Council (CPC) Executive Director Tracee Bentley and American Petroleum Institute (API) Chief Economist Erica Bowman today delivered a presentation on the economics of oil and natural gas benefits to Colorado consumers and economy before the Joint Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy and House Transportation and Energy committees.

“Colorado has a long history of energy development and leading the way on environmental stewardship,” Bentley said. “Together, this leadership has helped to disprove, conclusively, the long held assumption that leading the world in the production and refining of oil and natural gas is incompatible with an improving environment. Colorado no longer has to choose between more energy and a cleaner environment. Nationally, the United States has dramatically increased energy production and use while U.S. carbon emissions are down to 25 year lows.”

According to the EIA, in the first 6 months of 2016, carbon emissions from electricity generation were at their lowest point in 25 years even as electricity demand continues to rise, due largely to greater use of natural gas – now our nation’s largest fuel source for electricity. Thanks to America’s world class refineries and more fuel-efficient vehicles, U.S. air pollutants have fallen by 70 percent since 1970, even as vehicle miles travelled have increased by more than 170 percent. Further, thanks in part to the successes achieved by Colorado’s production and existing regulations combined with the increased use of domestic natural gas, ozone concentrations in the air have dropped by 17 percent since 2000; all of which makes the United States not just an energy superpower, but also a global emissions reduction leader.

“Our success was achieved through private sector innovation and investment,” Bowman said. “The oil and natural gas industry’s innovation in the decades-old technique of hydraulic fracturing, paired with horizontal drilling, is the driving force for the American energy revolution and opportunities for economic prosperity for Colorado.

“As the world oil and natural gas markets rebalance, taking into account U.S. production efficiency and affordability, the oil and natural gas industry stands ready to work with Colorado’s elected leaders at all levels of government to ensure that Colorado consumers continue to benefit from affordable, Colorado-produced, domestic energy.”

CPC 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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