API's 'Explore Offshore' Campaign Heads to Capitol Hill

December 3, 2018

The American Petroleum Institute’s (API) “Explore Offshore” campaign, which includes expanding energy exploration efforts including in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico and in the Atlantic, came to Capitol Hill last week.

The national “Explore Offshore” campaign is led by former U.S. Veterans Affairs Sec. Jim Nicholson, who led the Republican National Committee (RNC), and former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 election cycle.  Those national chairs were part of a briefing on Capitol Hill and were joined by state chairs, including former Florida Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp.

API released reports on drilling in the Atlantic and the Eastern Gulf  which “estimate that offshore-related activities could generate additional non-bonus and royalty revenue such as personal and corporate income tax, property tax and sales taxes” including $2.5 billion in tax revenues for the Sunshine State.

“I am a strong believer that our national security and economic health depends on a vibrant, all of the above energy policy,” Webb, who briefly ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 election cycle, said. “When I was in the Senate I offered legislation which received bipartisan support, to open up oil exploration along the Atlantic seaboard, using our advanced modern technology and improved safety techniques. We now are the world’s leading producer and refiner of natural gas and oil.  This economic boost also allows us to advance our national security priorities throughout the world, and to stand firmly against potential adversaries whose economies are based disproportionately on energy wealth.

“Energy independence requires long-term planning, and taking advantage of the resources at hand,” Webb added. “It’s basic common sense for us to be able to use American technology and know-how in order to explore the areas along America’s Outer Continental Shelf to see what’s out there and to have a discussion about where some of these areas might be opened up for oil production.”

“Energy abundance is critical to our ongoing energy revolution, which supports the U.S. economy and jobs and puts downward pressure on prices at the pump. Current policy keeps 94 percent of our federal offshore areas closed to natural gas and oil exploration. To me, that’s the same as operating with one hand tied behind our back, and it’s time to change that. We know we’ll need more oil and natural gas for decades to come. This simply means that if we don’t produce natural gas and oil here in America, it will be produced by other nations - ones that don’t have the same advanced technologies, environmental standards or best practices..." 

Read entire article at Sunshine State News.

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