The benefits of lifting the almost 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports were praised by U.S. Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Joe Barton (R-TX) in a joint opinion editorial published last week in the Dallas Morning News.
The opinion editorial, titled “Develop American resources, create American jobs,” notes that citizens in both Louisiana and the region will see the direct benefit of the ban’s Dec. 18 lifting through job creation and the growth of the economy.
Up to one million new jobs will be created nationwide by lifting the ban while an estimated $170 billion will be added to the GDP annually. The ban’s reversal is also projected to create six jobs in the broader economy for every one job created in the oil and gas sector and drop gas prices by as much as 13 cents per gallon.
“Throughout the Gulf Coast region, our oil and gas industry remains the heartbeat of our economy — an amazing success story that creates good-paying jobs by providing homegrown energy to America and our allies,” the congressmen wrote. “In Texas and Louisiana alone, the oil and gas industry supports well over two million jobs directly and indirectly, from oil patch workers to engineers, service industry workers to truck drivers, computer programmers and more. The average salary of an oil and gas industry worker in the Gulf Coast region is about $80,000 a year, and the industry contributes tens of billions of dollars to our regional economy. With results like these, every state blessed with valuable energy resources should have the same opportunity to replicate our success.”
Instead, the duo wrote, regulations founded in the cap-and-trade plan imposed by President Barack Obama, as well as other policies, have hurt American workers and their families. The congressmen said that, as a result, more than 80,000 jobs have been lost while oil producing rigs have been dialed back by 60 percent.
“Instead of helping Americans compete on the global stage and benefit from our incredible energy resources, the president and his allies are doing the exact opposite, blocking enormous opportunities and trying to force their own radical agenda on the rest of us,” the pair wrote. You’ll see that huge cost in everything from higher food and electricity prices, to thousands more lost jobs.”
To protect their constituents, Scalise and Barton said that they have fought against the Clean Power Plan and the New Source Performance Standard that would drive the cost of electricity up while voting to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline and upgrade the nation’s energy infrastructure.