FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 3, 2009
CONTACT:
Brian Kennedy (202) 346-8826
Chris Tucker (202) 346-8825
IER Launches Online Effort Encouraging Americans to Say “Yes We Can” to New Offshore Energy
IER Urges American Energy Consumers to Register Their Comments on Interior Department’s Historic New Five-Year Energy Plan
Washington, D.C. – The Institute for Energy Research (IER) today encouraged American energy consumers to speak up and make their support known for a new five-year energy plan released last month that would generate millions of new jobs, billions in new revenue, and lessen America’s reliance on foreign suppliers for its energy.
The plan, organized by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service, envisions the future exploration of 31 lease sales in 12 planning areas offshore, the first time in more than 25 years that many of these energy-rich tracts have been considered. IER is currently in the process of gathering public comments on the plan, which can be submitted here.
IER president Thomas J. Pyle released the following statement:
“Unlike many of the make-work jobs the economic stimulus plan purports to create, greater domestic energy production creates real jobs. I can think of no better or more immediate way to invigorate this nation’s economy than to responsibly develop our abundant, domestic, taxpayer-owned energy resources. Opening the OCS, which lawmakers have kept off-limits for decades, could create 160,000 new jobs and generate $1.7 trillion in local, state, and federal tax revenues—just the kind of economic infusion our nation needs right now.
“OCS leasing gives the private sector the opportunity to spend its own money to find and produce energy, rather than the Washington model that spends taxpayer dollars to create jobs, support them, and ultimately make energy more expensive for all Americans. Increased access to domestic energy will create long-term jobs, lower energy prices, and generate hundreds of billions of dollars in royalties and taxes for government coffers. Less than four percent of the government’s lands are currently leased for energy. The move to offshore exploration is long overdue.”
IER’s most recent education and outreach campaign netted more than 30,000 comments in support of unlocking additional areas offshore for energy exploration and development. MMS’s current plan was prepared using input from that effort.
More from IER on the extraordinary energy/revenue/job potential of producing more energy here at home:
- Fact Sheet: The Real OCS: Supplies, Bans, and Natural Seeps
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.
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www.InstituteforEnergyResearch.org
