One of the unfortunate characteristics of the oil and gas industry is its unwillingness to estimate the impact of government actions in terms that the public can relate to.
While industry people can get silly about impacts in terms of marginal barrels per day and dollars per barrel, what the public relates to is jobs created and jobs destroyed.
For a change, it would be nice to see the American Petroleum Institute, National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, or National Petroleum Council objectively look at the options on the table before Congress and estimate the jobs impacts on the primary hydrocarbons business—and also on the secondary jobs that depend on oil and gas.
Congress would look differently at the oil provisions if its members knew that, say, 500,000 jobs in the business would be destroyed.
If you look at lobbyists for the renewable energy industry, all they talk about in Washington is jobs created within their sector. We never learn.
Tony Pavone
Menlo Park, Calif.
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