American Petroleum Institute Urges Candidates To Outline Their Oil And Energy Visions

With nearly everyone – including candidates themselves – complaining that substantive questions are not being asked during presidential debates, the American Petroleum Institute has a couple of questions to offer up.

Louis Finkel, executive vice president of the American Petroleum Institute outlined those questions with Benzinga and said presidential candidates were not the only ones who needed to answer them.

Related Link: Crude Oil Futures Unchanged

Benzinga: Why is API urging presidential candidates to outline their thoughts on energy?

Louis Finkel: Let me start by noting that it’s not just presidential candidates. It’s candidates at all levels of the government.

We are already engaged in what will now be an 18-month presidential election campaign, and we’re 56 weeks away from a presidential election. We believe strongly that our presidential candidates need to articulate their vision for America’s energy future.

In doing that, we really want to hear what their views are about energy policies going forward and whether or not they support a pro-growth, pro-energy agenda or a vision built on regulatory constraints, which withholds economic growth and stifles job creation here in America.

BZ: What kinds of questions does API believe voters should be asking candidates?

LF: I think the questions American voters need to be asking are the questions we – the oil and gas industry – are going to be asking:

• “Do you support an agenda that allows for the creation of 2.3 million more jobs and $443 billion worth of economic growth through increased production on both private and federal lands and expanding our offshore access by allowing for an environment that builds on our energy security – energy security that we been growing over the last six to 10 years?”
• “Or, do you support a vision that imposes regulatory constraints and huge costs on our energy production but more importantly, results in 830 thousand jobs being lost in the energy sector and about $18 billion in economic downturn in the energy space?”

BZ: Is there anything else pro-energy does to influence the economy?

LF: What we’ve learned over the last 10 years is that the investments America’s oil and natural gas companies have made in innovation have resulted in technology. That technology has led us to many harnessed resources we didn’t know we’d be able to get to.

It really changes the paradigm, not just for the American consumer and for our economy but on a global scale. The U.S., 10 years ago was importing more than 60 percent of the oil we consumed on a daily basis. Now that number is well below 30 percent. Most of that oil is North American oil that we’re getting from Mexico and Canada when we do import it.

That translates to downward pressure on prices per barrel of oil, ultimately bringing down the price of gasoline. The metric is simple. Whenever the price of gasoline goes down by one cent, American consumers save a billion dollars from that price drop.

Clearly, there is a huge consumer benefit in addition to the national security and economic security benefits that we get from increasing domestic production.

BZ: Where can people go to learn more?

LF: Our website is www.api.org, but our voter education program is www.Vote4Energy.org.

Both are great resources to get more information.

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco had no position in any mentioned securities.