Bob McCarty Writes

Jack Gerard, API President

“U.S. and global energy policy remains in the forefront of public debate, and I expect will remain there well into this decade,” said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute.  “Unfortunately, too often lost in the sloganeering is the reality of what it will take to provide the nation with affordable, reliable energy and assist in returning the economy to full strength at a time of double-digit unemployment.”

Speaking this afternoon at the U.S. Energy Association‘s Sixth Annual State of the Energy Industry Conference in Washington, D.C., Gerard spent about 20 minutes highlighting what many in the room already knew.

“We need to look no further than the oil and natural gas industry to understand this challenge.  During the give and take of public discourse, few truly stop to think how absolutely essential oil and natural gas are to our lives, to our prosperity and security, and to our future.”

In his address at the National Press Club, Gerard shared some numbers related to the nation’s oil and gas industries that should make Americans take notice. For instance, he said:

• The oil and natural gas industries supply 63 percent of the nation’s energy today and represent more than $1 trillion of U.S. economic activity, accounting for some 7.5 percent of U.S. GDP – helping make our economy the biggest in the world;

• The oil and natural gas industries support more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs, a job base that even with the assumed maturity of this industry is surprisingly dynamic and growing and has potential for more growth.

• Between 2004 and 2007 the industry created more than two million additional American jobs;

• Between 2000 and 2008, the oil and natural gas industry invested more than $58 billion on these and other carbon mitigation technologies, more than either the federal government or the rest of private industry combined;

• The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that oil and natural gas will supply more than half our energy in 2030 – some two-and-a-half gallons of petroleum products a day on average for every man, woman and child in the United States and significantly expanded amounts of natural gas; and

• Ninety-six percent of everything manufactured in the United States is touched by the business of chemistry, and the U.S. chemical industry relies on natural gas as its primary feedstock.

Aside from numbers alone, Gerard explained that the nation is not running out of oil or natural gas and issued a challenge of sorts to all Americans:

“If we as a nation are serious about new jobs, if we want to stimulate our economy, if we want to constructively increase revenues to federal, state and local government, which could be used to battle deficits and accelerate the expansion of new energy technologies, we clearly have the means of doing so.  Domestic oil and gas development plays a significant role today and will continue to do so looking ahead.

“Most Americans understand this.  They want more jobs.  They want more affordable and reliable energy, both alternatives and traditional forms such as oil and natural gas.  It’s time to move policy in that direction.”

To read more BMW posts about the nation’s oil and gas industries, click here.