WASHINGTON, May 7, 2015 – API Senior Director of Federal Relations Khary Cauthen said the Oil and Gas Production and Distribution Reform Act is needed to modernize and improve the permitting process for energy pipelines.

“America’s energy renaissance needs more pipelines and the current process for approving them is broken and needs to be fixed,” said Cauthen. “We need to have more pipeline capacity to transport the fuels consumers need to run their daily lives.

“The U.S. is now an energy super power. We are the world’s number one natural gas producer and we’ll soon be number one in oil, but we need new infrastructure in place to realize our true energy potential. Pipelines continue to be one of the safest and most efficient modes to transport product. Thus streamlining their approval process only makes sense.”

API thanked Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) for their leadership on this issue. They recognize that we need to seize this energy moment and build the infrastructure necessary to enhance America’s energy security.

API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API’s more than 625 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation’s energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 25 million Americans.