Sabrina Fang | 202.682.8114 | fangs@api.org

WASHINGTON, September 19, 2011 - On this third anniversary of the State Department's consideration of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project, the American Petroleum Institute said this should be one of the shovel ready projects the president considers as part of his jobs program.

"Three long years have gone by and it's now time to immediately put 20,000 Americans to work building this new pipeline," said API Executive Vice President Marty Durbin. "Obtaining energy from our friendly and reliable North American neighbor will reduce our imports from unstable regions of the world. Surely, enhancing our nation's energy security and providing thousands of new jobs has got to be in the best interest of all Americans. With the pipeline, U.S. crude imports from Canada could reach four million barrels a day by 2020, twice what we currently import from the Persian Gulf."

The State Department has spent three years conducting a thorough environmental assessment. API now looks forward to the process moving forward and hopes to see the State Department consider this critical project to be in our nation's best interest. API looks forward to fully participatingin the agency's public hearings along the pipeline route next week. The hearings will provide yet another opportunity for supporters to showcase the major jobs, economic, and energy security benefits of this project.

"President Obama says the economy needs to grow faster, and we agree," said Durbin.  "More jobs will speed up our economic recovery, and our industry is ready to put Americans back to work."

Increased investment in Canadian oil sands development will generate $775 billion in GDP and create more than 500,000 new American jobs by 2035, according to a recent Canadian Energy Research Institute analysis.  Nearly 2,400 American companies in 49 states are already involved in the development of Canada's oil sands by supporting U.S. infrastructure or Canadian development projects.

The State Department is scheduled to make a final decision on the project by the end of 2011.

API represents more than 480 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 more than $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.