API Outlines Advocacy, Advertising Campaigns

“To lead the energy policy discussion and educate the public on the game-changing impact of the choices our nation faces when it comes to energy policy, API’s 2014 messaging and advocacy theme is ‘America’s Energy, America’s Choice,’” Gerard said. “It distills America’s energy policy discussion down to a basic choice: an American energy future of energy abundance, self-sufficiency, and global leadership or energy scarcity, dependence, and economic uncer­tainty.”

Gerard also outlined the broad economic, geopolitical, and security benefits of record-breaking domestic oil and natural gas production in the U.S. “We can erase what for decades has been America’s greatest economic vulnerability—our dependence on energy sources from other continents, particularly from less stable and less friendly nations—and funda­mentally alter the geopolitical landscape for decades to come, all while providing a much-needed boost to our economy. But only if we get our energy policy right,” he said.

Gerard also released the results of a new study by IHS, which estimates that capital spending on oil and gas midstream and downstream infrastructure has increased by 60% between 2010 and 2013, from $56.3 billion to $89.6 billion. This increase in capital spending has provided both an economic stimulus and further proof of how shale-driven oil and gas produc­tion is reshaping the U.S. oil and gas infrastructure landscape, according to the report. IHS analysis also estimates that $85 billion to $90 billion of direct capi­tal will be allocated toward oil and gas infrastructure in 2015. The IHS forecast of oil and gas infrastructure investment over the next 12 years estimates cumulative spending of $890 billion (in 2012 dollars) in the base case, and $1.15 trillion in the high-production case.