HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Changing the city's charter to ban an important source of energy, and limit possible economic growth and new jobs is the wrong direction for the Pittsburgh City Council, according to the Associated Petroleum Industries of Pennsylvania.

"The Marcellus Shale represents an opportunity for cleaner energy to fuel America and for new jobs in Pennsylvania," said API-Pennsylvania's Executive Director Rolf Hanson. "While this decision is largely symbolic, it doesn't inspire confidence in the ability of our policymakers to help Pennsylvanians find good-paying jobs or develop clean sources of energy to meet growing demand.

"Pittsburgh has benefited from 150 years of safely-produced natural gas from Pennsylvania wells. There is over 100 years of natural gas supply in the Marcellus Shale, one of the biggest known reserves in the world. A ban on hydraulic fracturing that makes this abundant resource unproductive is bad public policy, and bad news for Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania.

"In 2009 alone, the Marcellus industry in Pennsylvania and West Virginia contributed an additional $4.8 billion to the economies of those two states, generating more than 57,000 jobs and $1.7 billion in local, state, and federal tax collections."

Visit www.api.org for information on the hydraulic fracturing process and the benefits of natural gas.

API represents more than 470 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America's energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

SOURCE American Petroleum Institute

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