Encouraging US energy: Part 2

Read Encouraging US energy: Part 1

Diversity

‘We know that our future success depends on ensuring that the oil and natural gas workforce is as diverse as our country. To better understand how to do that and what it could mean for our nation, API commissioned IHS Global to examine potential job opportunities in the oil and natural gas industry for the next two decades. What we know is the jobs the oil and natural gas industry creates will require people with a wide range of skill sets, training and educational achievement levels, meaning that the opportunities we offer are not limited to a few highly skilled or specialised workers within a particular region of the country.’

‘The report estimates that there are nearly 408 000 job opportunities that could be filled by African American and Hispanic workers, with 185 000 being filled by women. African American and Hispanic workers are projected to make up nearly 20% of new hires in management, business, and financial jobs through 2030. These estimates are based on current and projected trends in factors such as labour force participation rates and educational attainment, and should be considered a floor, not a ceiling for job opportunities.

‘Just as our nation needs a true all of the above approach to energy policy, the oil and natural gas industry needs an all hands on deck approach to finding the talent we need to maintain our nation’s global energy leadership. Thankfully, it seems as though the nation’s unemployment rate is moving in the right direction. For years the oil and natural gas industry has been a leader in job creation and economic growth but we could do more.’

Looking forward

‘Looking ahead to the 2014 midterm elections and beyond, we must demand that those who act on our behalf, at all levels of government, implement energy policies based on current market conditions and our position as an energy leader. And even as America’s 21st century energy renaissance continues, its future is unclear. The question we must answer is whether our nation will pursue policies that encourage American global leadership of stifle it.

‘What we need is a fact based, forward looking energy policy that positions our nation to be a global energy leader well into the future. We need leaders who reject the outdated political ideology of the professional environmental fringe and the political dilettantes who advance the irresponsible and unrealistic off fossil fuel agenda. Because if we get our energy policy right today, we can be the generation that erases what for decades has been our country’s most potent and intractable economic vulnerability, dependence on energy resources from less stable regions and countries hostile to our goals, ideals and way of life. What we want and what the American people deserve is energy policy that continues the trend of our nation becoming energy self sufficient and THE global energy leader.’

‘Put simply, the 2014 elections will be instrumental in determining which American energy future comes to pass. Will we choose a future America that is a self sufficient, global energy leader or not? The choice is that start and that simple. Our underlying message is equally simple: Energy is fundamental to our society, and thanks to American innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, our nation stands among the world’s leaders in energy production and is poised to be The leader if we get American energy policy right today.’

Edited from Speech by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/16102014/encouraging-us-energy-api-pt2/