Averring that restrictive policies could reverse the nation’s progress in the energy sector, American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Jack Gerard recently promoted the need to adopt forward-looking approaches toward U.S. fossil fuel production.
“U.S. energy leadership is generating major economic benefits for American families and businesses,” Gerard said in a release following a recent API study. “Increased energy production and infrastructure investment could create hundreds of thousands of additional jobs.”
“Restrictive policies would take the United States back to an era of energy dependence — all based on the false idea that we must choose between energy self-sufficiency and environmental progress,” Gerard said, adding that reducing output of oil and natural gas could hike costs for U.S. consumers and manufacturers.
The institute’s recent study determined that if no new natural gas leases, hydraulic fracturing, new or expanded coal mining operations or new pipelines were permitted, consequences would range from the loss of millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in GDP for the U.S. to increased energy prices and household costs, especially in electricity prices.
“Cutting oil and natural gas production … could profoundly damage the U.S. economy, diminish our geopolitical influence, and severely weaken our energy security,” Gerard said in the release.
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