The oil industry’s chief lobbyist says the U.S. doesn’t need the Obama administration’s stiff regulations to fight climate change, as record oil and natural gas production is lowering both greenhouse gas emissions and prices while increasing jobs.
The “American model” for energy development has led to lower emissions, “not through legislative mandate, … executive decree” or far-reaching climate and clean energy regulations, said American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard during a policy speech in Washington Tuesday.
He said Congress’ recent lifting of the 40-year-old ban on oil exports “is a win” that will save U.S. consumers as much $5.8 billion a year, while representing a victory over “ideological dogma” and the “ardent few” that “believe keeping energy resources in the ground is a credible” energy policy.
Gerard said he will turn his attention to repealing the Environmental Protection Agency’s ethanol mandate in 2016, which he called a “relic” of the past. “It is a relic … that poses a direct threat” to the economy by forcing refiners and consumers to use more corn-based ethanol, which will hurt vehicle engines and drive up prices, he said.
He also said that far-reaching EPA regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, called the Clean Power Plan, are unnecessary and undermine the U.S. boon in natural gas development, which is the leading factor in dropping U.S. emissions.
The “Clean Power Plan … picks winners and losers” and is not based on sound economics and current market trends, Gerard said. The EPA’s plan poses a solution to a problem that is already being addressed by the market with increased electricity production from natural gas.
The White House says the “rush to natural gas is eliminated” in the final Clean Power Plan, in a bid to boost renewables, Gerard said. He added that natural gas is needed to back up solar and wind energy that are intermittant and not reliable. Natural gas also will provide cheaper energy costs, while lowering emissions, he said.
“Natural gas will provide all three with or without the Clean Power Plan,” Gerard said. He also said November’s decision by the administration not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline will have a “chilling effect” on future investment in U.S. infrastructure.
The project, which would have connected Canada’s oil sands in Alberta to U.S. refiners on the Gulf Coast, continues to be “demonized” as harming the Earth’s climate by driving up greenhouse gas emissions, he said. Many scientists say fossil fuel emissions are causing the Earth’s climate to warm.
Meanwhile, the president’s own State Department pointed out in a report that emissions would be lowered from building the pipeline, from relying less on rail, tankers and truck shipments to move the oil to the market.
