Oil and gas can help the US economy

API Chef Economist John Felmy told reporters on 26^th July that oil and gas production was on the rise and creating new jobs even thought he US economy is weakening. He said more oil and gas development could help jobs and the economy, decrease imports and add to the US’s overall energy supplies.

Comments from Felmy

‘The industry is investing. It’s expanding. It’s producing more oil and natural gas. It’s hiring. It’s added thousands of jobs this year, and, since the recession began, it has added more than 86 000 jobs. In contrast, the economy as a whole has lost five million, according to numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

‘The oil and gas success story has helped workers and the economy, but it could help even more if we encourages more development through more farsighted energy policies. We could be producing more, reducing imports more, and putting more people to work. There’s a lot of potential because we still import half our oil at an annual cost of hundreds of billions of dollars.

‘We’re pleased the White House has endorsed an all of the above energy strategy. But these are critical times for our economy, and we need more than an endorsement. We need leadership. We need leadership that would give meaning to the worlds all of the above, leadership that would take action unleashing the positive benefits of more development, leadership that would help Americans sooner rather than later.

‘That means increasing access, including an expansion of Interior’s latest offshore five year plan. It means approving the Keystone XL pipeline before the election, not next year or whenever. It means making real changes in regulatory policy.’

Adapted from press release by Claira Lloyd.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/27072012/oil_and_gas_jobs/