Jack N. Gerard has ended 10 years as the American Petroleum Institute’s president, but he has left an impressive legacy. Today’s API is more actively involved in issues than its predecessors. This is remarkable since its leader traditionally has faced a major challenge in finding a consensus among a much more diverse membership than those of trade associations focused on specific industry segments.
Gerard didn’t shy away from that challenge. From the outset, he spoke up as the top staff member of the country’s biggest oil and gas trade association. He also made certain that API’s top staff people were available to explain the reasons behind each position the association took.
Perhaps the single most symbolic event was the State of American Energy event in early January that he inaugurated soon after becoming API’s president. It’s no accident that a large number of trade association leaders, both from inside and outside the industry, are there for what became a can’t-miss gathering early in the new year.
Gerard was API’s president during a decade that reshaped the US oil and gas industry. Federal energy policies in 2008 were focused almost entirely on reducing reliance on crude oil imports, while US natural gas production seemed stuck in a steady decline. Technologies that were called unconventional at the time were just starting to take hold.
Ten years later, breakthroughs in reaching previously inaccessible resources in tight shales have made the US one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers. Previously quiet regions of the country are now among the largest contributors. Transportation from production sites to markets became the biggest single challenge.
Not your daddy’s issues
Clearly, these were not your daddy’s oil and gas issues. Gerard worked hard to make sure his would not be remembered as your daddy’s API. He often spoke of the organization’s network of grass roots supporters, which was pressed into action in response to issues. There have been plenty in recent years, as fossil fuels in general have come under fire from opponents for their alleged climate impacts.
Gerard and his people were always there, particularly when federal programs conceived to address problems years earlier started to create new ones.
His staff—from Executive Vice-Pres. and Chief Strategy Officer Martin J. Durbin on down—was exceptional. Several have stayed on to work with his successor, Mike Sommers, who was chief of staff for then-US House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and worked in other House leadership capacities for more than a decade before becoming president of the American Investment Council in 2016. But Gerard’s clearly will be a hard act for him to follow.
