Energy for America will educate and advocate forcefully for affordable, reliable, domestic energy exploration and production as a way to create jobs, grow our economy and provide us with the energy we need to secure the future.
Energy for America is a joint initiative of the American Energy Alliance, the Institute for Energy Research, and Americans for Prosperity. Energy for America will educate Americans about the extent of the Nation’s abundant natural resource base, and the perversity of federal energy policies that avoid reliable, affordable, proven domestic energy sources and embrace unreliable, expensive, unproven energy sources.
Energy for America believes that affordable and reliable energy is the lifeblood of any economy. When a Nation advances policies that allow its citizens to produce affordable and reliable energy, it grows economically, adds jobs and industry, and improves the quality of life for everybody.
Conversely, when energy is made more expensive and less reliable to produce, everything from diapers to food is more expensive because the increased cost of energy is factored into every good and service. Anything that is manufactured, harvested, or transported by truck, rail, airplane, or car becomes more expensive.
Energy for America believes that when citizens are allowed to explore for and produce the energy resources that they own, and when consumers are free to select the most affordable and reliable energy sources, we grow the economy, create opportunities and jobs, harvest more affordable and reliable energy, and provide governments with stable, growing sources of revenues.
The United States is the richest energy nation in the world. Our supplies of natural gas, oil, coal, hydropower, and wind can supply this Nation with all the energy we need for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, the policymakers in Washington, D.C. have for decades prevented us from having access to our own energy resources and have pursued policies that make it more difficult to produce those resources here at home.
Even now, citizens of the United States are currently only allowed to explore for and produce energy in less than 3% of the entire federal estate. That means that 97% of the offshore and onshore areas controlled by the federal government are off limits to energy exploration and production.
Unfortunately, as part of both the deliberations of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and President Obama’s new $447 billion stimulus scheme, some want to punish energy consumers by increasing the cost of the most affordable and reliable energy sources we have.
Unelected federal bureaucrats have also gotten into the business of stifling domestic energy production. Attempts to further regulate the use of hydraulic fracturing—the drilling technology that has expanded our accessible natural gas reserves by more than 30 percent in the last five years—would significantly affect the reliability and affordability of natural gas, while threatening to unseat the U.S. as the world’s largest producer.
Meanwhile, increasingly stringent air quality regulations that disproportionately affect the energy sector continue to be issued, even as air quality improves and goals are met. These arbitrary regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency are estimated to cost U.S. businesses billions to comply with every year. With uncertainty looming, these businesses are unlikely to take on the risk of investing, growing, and creating much-needed jobs.
Perhaps no situation better illustrates the stifling effects of government regulation than the offshore Gulf of Mexico; long after the six-month mandatory moratorium was lifted, the region continues to suffer under a de-facto moratorium in the form of lengthy delays in permit approvals. From the end of the moratorium in October 2010 until April 2011, the number of pending exploration and development plans that have not received final action was found to have increased almost 90 percent from historical levels, while the median number of days a plan is pending approval increased from 36 days to 131 days. Rather than waiting for relief, offshore drilling rigs have left for overseas destinations, each one taking 800 to 1400 jobs and oil production with it.
Energy for America believes that a better approach would be to encourage energy production by increasing access to federal lands, both on and offshore. Recent history, common sense, and a growing number of studies all indicate that energy production, especially exploration for and production of oil and natural gas, leads to more economic growth, new jobs, and increased tax revenues for the government.
We clearly need the help. Our economy is in serious trouble. There are now 14 million unemployed Americans (up about 2 million since 2008). The nominal unemployment rate is 9.1 percent (up from 7.8 percent in 2008), and the real unemployment rate is probably closer to 15 percent. Gasoline prices hover around $3.50 a gallon (compared to about $1.79 in January 2009). The federal debt is now almost $15 trillion (up from about $10 trillion in 2008).
The federal government must no longer sit on its hands. Right now, all we hear is talk about increasing taxes on energy companies, which will, or course, lead to higher energy prices, more unemployment, less economic growth. What we need is a conversation about allowing Americans to develop their own energy resources, create economic growth and jobs, provide more opportunity, and increase tax revenues by growing the economy.
That is the conversation we intend to start and support at Energy for America. We invite you to join us. Sign our petition below to President Obama and Congress. Tell Washington it’s time to get America working again; it’s time to allow us to explore for and produce our abundant, domestic energy resources.
The Institute for Energy Research
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets.
IER maintains that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.
IER is a not for profit under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is funded entirely by tax deductible contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations. No financial support is sought for or accepted from government sources.
The American Energy Alliance
The American Energy Alliance (“AEA”) is a not-for-profit organization that engages in grassroots public policy advocacy and debate concerning energy and environmental policies.
AEA has no ties to any political party, and it has no interest in supporting the agenda of any particular political party. AEA is an issue organization that supports affordable, abundant and reliable energy for America’s consumers and businesses.
Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is committed to educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing those citizens as advocates in the public policy process. AFP is an organization of grassroots leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state, and federal levels. The grassroots activists of AFP advocate for public policies that champion the principles of entrepreneurship and fiscal and regulatory restraint.
The American Energy Alliance is organized as a 501(c)(4) under the Internal Revenue Code. The Institute for Energy Research is organized as a 501(c)(3) under the Internal Revenue Code and all of its expenditures are used strictly for educational and research purposes.
