Bill Bush | 202.682.8114 | bushw@api.org

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2011 – Jack Gerard, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said the Senate oil and natural gas company CEO hearing today focused on a failed policy prescription that would move the nation in the wrong direction on energy:  

“Raising energy taxes will do nothing to create jobs, reduce prices, enhance our energy security or increase revenue to our government long term.  The hearing was predictable political theater, a distraction aimed at masking past energy policy failures that contributed to the volatile prices consumers are understandably concerned about.  It was also an uninformed, unmerited assault on some of America’s biggest and most reliable employers, who are investing billions of dollars annually in new energy projects while also paying many billions of dollars a year in taxes at some of the highest effective rates for any American industry or business. 

“We can address our energy challenges by developing more energy at home.  That will create jobs and more energy and help strengthen the security of our energy supplies.  With this spectacle now over, we hope policymakers will come together in a bipartisan way to work on energy policy that will work for America.” 

API represents more than 470 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.