Oceana Refutes American Petroleum Institute Study | Oceana

Oceana Refutes American Petroleum Institute Study

Press Release Date: January 25, 2011

Location: Washington, D.C.

Contact:

Anna Baxter | email: abaxter@oceana.org
Anna Baxter

The American Petroleum Institute is expected to push research today that makes an economic argument for lifting any restrictions on offshore drilling or adoption of any of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling recommendations.

Oceana offers this response:

Policy discussions for the best path to economic recovery should be focused on clean, safe jobs vs. dirty, risky jobs.   A University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute study concluded that clean energy creates three times more jobs per dollar invested than traditional fossil fuels. (Source: Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy, September 2008)

 “Clean energy is THE key to economic recovery and growth in the 21st Century,” said Oceana senior campaign manager Jacqueline Savitz.   As Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Mark Udall (D-CO) wrote in a Politico opinion piece last fall, ‘the nation that first develops and integrates affordable clean energy technologies is likely to dominate the 21st century economy.’    The senators estimated that the potential clean energy technology market value is $2 trillion.  The nation cannot afford to allow our economic rivals lead this important sector.”

“This is the most compelling reason for a rapid and comprehensive transition to clean energy.  Projected job growth in this sector will exceed that of the fossil fuel industry if we make the right investments now,” added Savitz.  “Even BP’s recently released Energy Outlook 2030 predicts growth in renewable forms of energy will exceed growth of oil during the next two decades.  BP’s own research suggests this trend in job creation will persist, underscoring how crucial larger investments in renewables are to future job growth.”

A 2009 Pew Center on the States study found that U.S. clean energy jobs have grown by 9.1 percent during 1998-2007, compared to other sector job growth of 3.7 percent during the same period.