Blog: Natural Resources Hearing: Eliminate Hurdles to American Energy Production, Create Hundreds of Thousands of American Jobs

Statement

Rolling back regulatory hurdles to American energy production, a key tenet of both the American Energy Initiative and the Plan for America's Job Creators, could create hundreds of thousands of new American jobs, according to two recent studies shared at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing yesterday. Both studies examined the impact that accelerating energy exploration and production would have on job creation, as opposed to maintaining the current pace of energy exploration and production that has been bogged down by excessive regulations and permitting delays. Here are the results:

* Wood Mackenzie Study: Increasing American Energy Could Add 1.4 Million American Jobs. "U.S. policies which encourage the development of new and existing resources could, by 2030, increase domestic oil and natural gas production by over 10 million boed, support an additional 1.4 million jobs, and raise over $800 billion of cumulative additional government revenue. Whereas increasing regulatory burdens on the oil and gas upstream sector will result in higher development costs, which can potentially hinder the growth of production, tax revenues, and job creation." (Scott Mitchell, Head of America's Upstream Research, Wood Mackenzie, 9/8/11)

* IHS Global Insight Study: Returning Energy Production to Historical Levels Could Create More Than 200,000 Additional Jobs Next Year. "[O]ur study found that if the pace of activity in the Gulf had returned to its previous historical levels upon the lifting of the moratorium: Potentially nearly 230,000 additional jobs in 2012 alone would be generated including (26,000 direct jobs, 61,000 indirect jobs, and 141,000 induced jobs.)" (John Larson, Vice President, IHS Consulting, Public Sector IHS Global Insight, 9/8/11)

In his opening statement at yesterday's hearing, Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) urged President Obama to work with Congress to advance several job-creating American energy bills that have been passed by the House, but remain stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Chairman Hastings also laid out additional solutions that would help put Americans back to work by unlocking more of America's energy resources, and eliminating government barriers to energy exploration and production that are costing American jobs. The Congressional Western Caucus has also put forth a job creation plan to help boost American energy production by streamlining onshore energy permitting and opening up new areas to exploration

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