Sabrina Fang | 202.682.8114| fangs@api.org

WASHINGTON  JULY 26, 2011 ─ API reiterated its support of the bipartisan North American-Made Energy Act to speed up the permitting process for the Keystone XL Pipeline to transport Canadian oil to the U.S. Gulf coast.

"Projects that will create American jobs through the use of Keystone XL are ready to go, but the slow approval process is denying thousands of Americans new paychecks," said API Executive Vice President Marty Durbin.

Durbin was referring to a report by the Canadian Economic Research Institute (CERI) that 10,000 U.S. jobs will not be created next year because the pipeline has not been built. That number jumps to 45,000 in 2015 and close to 85,000 jobs in 2020. 

"The House bill requiring the administration to make a decision about the Keystone XL Pipeline by November 1 makes sense," Durbin said. "The project has undergone extensive analysis and review and it is time to move forward so that we can create jobs and further strengthen our relationship with America’s number one trading partner and largest source of imported oil, Canada." 

"The shovel-ready project will immediately generate 20,000 new U.S. jobs, and investing in Canadian oil will support 600,000 Americans jobs by 2035," Durbin said, citing the CERI report.

"Adding Canada’s oil sands resources to U.S. reserves, North America is now the strongest growing non-OPEC region for oil production," said Durbin. "It’s puzzling, therefore to see our government urging OPEC to produce more crude and tapping our emergency supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while delaying this critical pipeline."

Durbin thanked U.S. Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Mike Ross (D-Ark.) for their bipartisan support to put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work, and to help boost the nation’s energy security.

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 over $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.