U.S energy policy is on the “wrong track” and has been for several years, said American Petroleum Institute (API) President Jack Gerard last week. He called for the government to make a “course correction” by opening more public onshore and offshore lands to producers, which he said would significantly bolster employment and increase revenues to the federal government.

Speaking to reporters at the Newseum in Washington, DC, Gerard said API has launched the national initiative “Vote 4 Energy” to help Americans understand why energy issues should figure prominently in their voting decisions in November. “We are going to encourage voters, all voters, to make energy a voting issue,” he said.

The API, in its “State of American Energy” report, also released last Wednesday, projected that:

With the ability to create an additional 1.4 million jobs by 2030, the oil and natural gas industry can be part of the solution to the national jobs crisis and the federal deficit, according to the API report. The industry pays the federal government about $86 million a day, or about $31 billion a year, in rents, royalties, bonuses, lease payments and corporate taxes. On top of this, the industry directly contributes an estimated $470 billion to the domestic economy in spending, wages and dividends.

“Despite the potential benefits and numerous polls showing the majority of Americans support increased access to domestic oil and gas resources, many policies currently delay or outright prohibit resource development through a slow permitting pace, uncertainty caused by proposals for burdensome tax increases and costly and redundant regulations,” the report said.

Onshore, roughly 33 states hold an estimated 88.6 billion bbl of oil and 654.3 Tcf of natural gas, according to the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management. The oil is enough to power 10 million cars for 305 years, and the natural gas is enough to heat 10 million homes for 894 years, the report said. U.S. offshore reserves (proven and undiscovered) are estimated at 101 billion bbl of oil and 480 Tcf.

The report estimated that between 2000 and 2006, production of natural gas from U.S. shale formations grew by an average of 17% per year, and increased by an average of 48% per year from 2006 to 2010.

The development of gas from shale basins was responsible for supporting 600,000 jobs in 2010 and could support more than 1.6 million jobs by 2035, according to API. The development would contribute more than $76 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2010, which could triple to $231 billion in 2035; and it would contribute $18.6 billion in federal, state and local government tax and federal royalty revenues, which could more than triple to $57 billion by 2035.

“This is only the beginning as the EIA [Energy Information Administration] projects that total national gas production from shale could grow by almost threefold from 2009 to 2035,” the API report said.

In 2035, natural gas from shale is expected to account for 60% of all U.S. natural gas production and 46% of total U.S. gas consumption, compared to 14% in 2009, the API report said.

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