AEA:  "Offshore energy exploration and production means good jobs and lower energy prices for consumers"

WASHINGTON, July 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the American Energy Alliance (AEA) launches Save U.S. Energy Jobs, a project to promote jobs in the U.S. energy sector, to ensure that citizens are informed about the importance of energy jobs to the American economy and American consumers, and to educate citizens about how the U.S. energy industry addresses safety and health issues.

AEA President Thomas J. Pyle says, "The BP oil spill is a disaster that will have significant social and economic consequences. The accident was and is tragic. We need to ensure that its effects are mitigated as much as possible. We need to ensure that the environment is restored. We need to make sure that those affected are assisted in their efforts to recover.

"We also need to make sure that we do not overreact. The accident, while unfortunate, should not provide an excuse for those who want to cut off access to our domestic energy resources. The accident should also not provide an excuse to drive significant, widespread, and ill-considered changes to our energy policies. The focus of our efforts should be on mitigating the damage caused by the spill, not using it as a political prop to advertise for poorly-constructed energy policies which will increase the price of energy and other goods and cost American jobs.

"Our energy industry helps fuel every aspect of our lives, from powering our businesses to heating our homes. Offshore energy exploration and production means good jobs and lower energy prices for consumers. A growing America needs the energy produced by the men and women who work in the oil, gas, and coal industries."

Save U.S. Energy Jobs will also help educate voters about the unfortunate divergence in safety and health approaches between BP and the remainder of the industry. The record shows that BP has operated outside industry-accepted, standard operating procedures. To tarnish an entire industry because of the continuing incompetence of one company is not only wholly unfair, it is a misrepresentation of the facts.

The numbers speak for themselves – 760 'egregious, willful' safety violations administered to BP by OSHA compared to Sunoco's eight, two for Conoco-Phillips and CITGO and one for ExxonMobil, the industry's safety leader. Other companies maintained these impeccable records while drilling over 50,000 wells safely in federal waters. This is not an industry problem. This is a BP problem.

To learn more and get exclusive information on upcoming projects, follow Save U.S. Energy Jobs on Twitter and Facebook.

Founded in May, 2008, The American Energy Alliance ("AEA") is a not-for-profit organization that engages in grassroots public policy advocacy and debate concerning energy and environmental policies.  AEA is the advocacy arm of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), a not-for-profit organization – founded in 1989 – that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets.

SOURCE American Energy Alliance

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