Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs at the American Petroleum Institute (API), said in an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday with host Matt Boyle that if President Joe Biden puts a permanent ban on oil and gas development on federal waters and land, it could cost 1 million American jobs.
Boyle asked Macchiarola about the significance of Biden revoking the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline and putting a 60-day pause on federal land leasing in his first days in office.
“I think the first four days of the Biden Administration have given a clear picture of what the next four years could look like,” he said. “President Biden comes into office with a real economic headwind and a difficult labor market but at the same time he inherited an energy [landscape] that’s stronger because of America’s shale revolution.”
“We’ve produced lower household energy costs as a result of U.S. energy and less reliance on foreign energy sources,” Macchiarola added.
“The president has a choice to make: He can maintain U.S. leadership and maintain and support our economic recovery with American energy or he can pursue policies that destroy jobs and at the same time increase energy imports,” he further asserted.
“The first few days should concern all Americans because the administration is clearly taking actions that are going to harm the economy and cost Americans jobs,” Macchiarola said.
As Breitbart News reported, shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline will cost 11,000 jobs directly and as many as 60,000 indirect jobs.
The federal ban presents an even more staggering number, Macchiarola asserted.
“The full scale ban of development on federal lands you can bet the impact could be up to a million jobs in the United States,” he said.
The Keystone decision also affects our relationship with Canada and the U.S. economy.
“Two of the major components of the inauguration address and of the priorities of the new administration, No. 1 is rebuilding alliances and No. 2 strengthening our economy,” Macchiarola said. “With this decision that heads in the opposite direction on both of those priorities.”
It could also cost the U.S. $2 billion in wages, he said.
Macchiarola also spoke to the potential for Biden’s policies to endanger U.S. energy independence.
“This shale revolution has unlocked resources that we never thought we’d be able to get to and that’s meant more jobs in the United States, lower energy costs and greater energy security,” Macchiarola said.
“For the first time in 2019 in 67 years [the U.S.] became a net exporter of energy rather than a net importer,” he noted. “That’s a huge deal. And abandoning federal leasing heads in a different direction.”
For example, federal land and waters accounted for 22 percent of oil production and 12 percent of natural gas production in 2019.
“That’s the difference between energy independence and energy security and reliance on foreign sources,” Macchiarola said.
He cited the irony of Biden’s nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) to serve as secretary of the Department of the Interior.
Half of the energy produced in New Mexico comes from federal land and two thirds of the natural gas in the state comes from federal land.
API produced a study last year that showed a federal land ban could cost up to 5 percent of all jobs in the state.
“These decisions are sweeping,” Macchiarola said. “They’re broad and they will really have negative impacts on our economy and our labor market at really the worst possible time.”
“If [Biden’s] priority is to bring back jobs in the United States and to grow our economy then they really need to rethink these policies, particularly the policy with respect to a leasing bans on federal lands for oil and gas development.”
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com
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