Despite the years that they have spent attacking President Obama, the dirty energy industry is incredibly optimistic that the White House is going to give the oil and gas industry everything they want in Obama’s second term.
Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), said that his group is confident that the Obama administration’s second term will turn into a boom for the natural gas industry. As we’ve pointed out in the past, Gerard’s vision for America is to have a dirty energy lobbyist strategically placed in every district in the country.
The Hill has the latest from Gerard:
American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard said at the lobby shop’s annual energy outlook event Tuesday that he was “encouraged” by Obama’s recent comments on the oil-and-gas industry.
“I think over the past couple of months we’ve increased positive dialogue with the administration,” Gerard said in a news conference after the event.
Gerard attributed that shift to “game-changing” natural-gas development and the Obama administration’s more recent embrace of natural gas. Gerard said he wants to work with the administration to harness the domestic energy boom to help the economy.
Gerard’s optimism is based on statements that Obama made both during and after his campaign, including his statements of support for increased natural gas drilling as well as his goal of making America a net exporter of energy.
Gerard is also banking on a government report from late 2012 that says that becoming a natural gas exporter would create a net economic benefit for the United States of between $10 and $30 billion a year.
However, that study did not take into account the increased environmental and health damage associated with increasing natural gas extraction processes, including the risks of fracking, and it also readily admits that becoming a natural gas exporter means that Americans will pay a higher price for gas.
API is incredibly happy with the prospects before them for Obama’s second term, which is a bad sign for the American people.
The activities of the API are constantly at odds with the best interest of the American public, and if they get their way in Washington then that means that the people will be the losers in this scenario.
