Quick Facts
Jobs, Economic and Energy Benefits of Domestic Production
- The energy industry employs 354,000 Americans in the exploration and production of domestic oil and natural gas.
- In 2007, the oil and natural gas industry paid public and private landowners $30 billion in royalties.
- Independent energy producers are responsible for 90 percent of America’s oil and natural gas wells. Those wells yield 82 percent of America’s natural gas and 68 percent of America’s oil.
- U.S. oil and natural gas industry spending on domestic production reached a record high $226 billion in 2007.
- The United States still imports two-thirds of our oil needs.
Hydraulic Fracturing
- Hydraulic fracturing has been employed since 1903, and was made commercially viable in 1949. There have been no instances of contaminated drinking water in that time.
- Actual fracturing takes place at depths up to 10,000 feet below ground, far underneath water supplies, which are generally above 500 feet below ground.
- Hydraulic fracturing has been declared safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.
- Almost 30 percent of all domestic recoverable oil and gas reserves are made accessible through hydraulic fracturing-seven billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas so far.
Dangers of New Regulation
- New regulations being discussed in Washington could force the closure of 57 percent of America’s oil wells and 35 percent of our gas wells. In addition to heavy job losses, these closures would cost the federal government $4 billion in revenue, and state treasuries would lose out on $785 million in state severance and income taxes.
- New regulations could cut domestic energy production by 183,000 barrels of oil per day and 245 billion cubic feet of natural gas every year.
