API says Biden energy policies will lead to increased imports, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs and revenue to the government for schools

 Rigzone:

Restricting development on federal lands and waters is nothing more than an import more oil policy.

That’s according to American Petroleum Institute (API) President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Sommers, who noted that energy demand will continue to rise, especially as the economy recovers.

“We can choose to produce that energy here in the United States or rely on foreign countries hostile to American interests,” Sommers said in an API statement.

“With this move, the administration is leading us toward more reliance on foreign energy from countries with lower environmental standards and risks to hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in government revenue for education and conservation programs,” he added.

“We stand ready to engage with the Biden administration on ways to address America’s energy challenges but impeding American energy will only serve to hurt local communities and hamper America’s economic recovery,” Sommers continued.

According to a recent API analysis, without access to energy development on federal lands and waters, U.S. energy supply would shift to foreign sources, cost nearly one million American jobs, increase CO2 emissions and reduce revenue that funds education and key conservation programs.

Commenting on the potential new energy policy, Todd Staples, the president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA), said, “banning energy development on federal lands and in offshore waters not only threatens thousands of the best paying jobs but needlessly erases much needed revenue that helps pay for schools and other essential services”.
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Hostility to fossil fuels will be extremely expensive and hurt not just the workers, but also the cities and states where they live along with the housing market and retail sales.  Meanwhile, the Port of Corpus Christi continues work on shipments to China that may be redirected for domestic use and the supply tightens because of the Biden-Kerry blunder on energy. 

The Western Energy Alliance in Wyoming has sued Biden saying he has exceeded his authority with an order to halt oil and gas leasing.

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“The law is clear. Presidents don’t have authority to ban leasing on public lands. All Americans own the oil and natural gas beneath public lands, and Congress has directed them to be responsibly developed on their behalf,” Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma said in a statement, according to The Washington Times. “Drying up new leasing puts future development as well as existing projects at risk. President Biden cannot simply ignore laws in effect for over half a century.”

The executive order, Sgamma said, violates the Mineral Leasing Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act.
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