The oil and gas industry’s largest lobbying engine started its 2016 election policy push on Wednesday, sending a list of recommendations to both political parties’ platform committees ahead of the July conventions.
American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard sent the 2016 Platform Committee Report at a 2016 election forum the industry group held in Washington. The document lays out a number of principles for how both parties can support policies that reflect global leadership on energy and increased self sufficiency from the boom in crude oil and natural gas production.
“Our 21st century energy revolution has made America the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world while helping us lower costs to consumers and lead the world in reducing carbon emissions,” Gerard said.
The platform recommendations focus on implementing policies that recognize the nation’s “energy reality,” which means supporting hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has made the U.S. a leading oil and gas producer and has lowered energy costs and cut greenhouse gas emissions, Gerard said.
It also recommends embracing the nation’s “new era of energy abundance” by implementing policies that continue the progress that has been made.
One key component is avoiding “unnecessary, duplicative regulations,” which the group makes clear in its recommendations to the platform committees. The group says it wants to avoid “undue burdens on energy development” with regulations that would slow infrastructure and pipeline development.
On climate change and the environment, the report says: “The best way to achieve our energy and environmental goals is through private innovation and investment, in cooperation with governments at all levels.”
“We want to remind candidates from both parties that energy policy remains one of the few issues that can bridge the ideological gap between Democrats and Republicans,” Gerard said.
The policy recommendations are being sent out as the parties come to the end of what Gerard called an “exceptionally raucous and long primary season.”
As the political parties look to put the primaries behind them, “we want to remind them of the bipartisan nature and foundational role of our candidate: Energy, particularly oil and natural gas, which makes our modern society possible and provides our quality of life,” he said.
Gerard told reporters that the institute will be sending the platform committee report to all the candidates, congressional offices and the parties’ national committees.
