Bill Bush | 202.682.8069 | bushw@api.org

Washington, November 29, 2010 – By a decisive margin, Americans oppose raising taxes on America’s oil and natural gas industry, and most believe it could kill jobs, according to an election-night telephone survey commissioned by API and conducted by Harris Interactive.  Sixty percent of the voters surveyed oppose an increase in taxes on the industry (compared with 30 percent in support); 54 percent say an increase could destroy jobs. 

“Voters fear that raising taxes on an industry that provides most of their energy and supports more than 9.2 million jobs would hurt them and damage the economy,” said API President and CEO Jack Gerard.  “Experience and instinct tell them tax hikes harm job creation, and the research agrees.”   

Based on a Wood Mackenzie analysis of production impacts from eliminating the manufacturing and intangible drilling cost tax deductions for the oil and natural gas industry, API calculated 58,800 jobs would be put at risk in 2011 and 165,000 in 2020.  A separate study of the impacts of ending the manufacturing tax deduction and increasing taxes on the industry’s foreign-earned income by Louisiana State University professor Joseph Mason concluded that 154,000 jobs could be lost in 2011. 

The U.S. oil and natural gas industry is one of the nation’s biggest taxpayers.  According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the industry paid almost $100 billion in federal income taxes in 2008 (latest available data).  A review of Compustat data shows that the oil and natural gas industry had an effective average tax rate of 48.4 percent in 2009 compared with 28.1 percent for the rest of S&P industrial companies.

API represents more than 400 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.5 percent of the U.S. economy, and, since 2000, has invested nearly $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives, while reducing the industry’s environmental footprint.

Methodology
The survey was commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute and conducted by Harris Interactive November 2, 2010 by telephone among 1,000 actual voters.  A full methodology is available upon request.