API Upstream Director Calls Obama to Turn Phrases into Actions

API Upstream Director Calls Obama to Turn Phrases into Actions

API Group Director of Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito yesterday called on the U.S. Government’s administration to make good on its promise to pursue an all-of-the-above energy strategy, citing a letter to President Obama yesterday by the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition.

“The U.S. has the potential to produce more energy, boost government revenues and create hundreds of thousands of additional jobs,” said Milito. “We need leadership that will take the phrase all-of-the-above and see it through with actions that promote developing all U.S. domestic energy for generations to come.”

In the letter sent to Obama, Governors expressed concern that Obama’s administration did not properly consult with the coastal states on the Proposed Final Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Natural Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 prior to its release by the U.S. Department of the Interior on June 28th.

He added:  “As the Governors’ letter highlights, the administration’s five-year plan continues a pattern of delay and restraint.”

“We believe that the federal government must abide by its legal responsibility to allow coastal state governors better opportunities to consult on the development and mitigation of the five-year plan. Failure to do so has led to a highly disappointing 2012-2017 Five-Year Plan that severely limits the ability of the United States to develop new areas offshore, grow our economy, and decrease our dependence on overseas oil,” the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition wrote in the letter.

Milito conludes:  “Implementing an all-of-the-above energy strategy requires the development of our most affordable and reliable resources. The U.S. should not settle for inert energy policies that threaten our energy security as the rest of the world moves forward with energy development.”

API represents more than 500 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

[mappress]
Offshore Energy Today Staff, August 10, 2012