Today, the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) will release a report on the numbers of jobs saved or created due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  In advance of this report, below is a list of jobs that the Obama Administration could save or create – without having to spend $787 billion - by simply supporting commonsense all-of-the-above energy policies.

Manufacturing Jobs – The Democrats’ National Energy Tax would raise energy prices and eliminate over 2.5 million American jobs, including manufacturing jobs. These jobs would be saved if the Administration withdrew this job-killing legislation.

Offshore Drilling Jobs – By issuing a defacto moratorium on new offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the Administration is passing up the opportunity to create millions of new, high-paying jobs.  According to the American Energy Alliance, lifting the moratoria on energy development on the OCS would create 1.2 million jobs annually across the country and generate $70 billion in additional wages.

Onshore Drilling Jobs – In February 2009 the Obama Administration withdrew areas offered for 77 oil and gas leases in Utah, thereby eliminating high-wage oil and natural gas jobs that would have resulted from these energy leases.

Nuclear Jobs – The Republican American Energy Act (H.R. 2846) would bring 100 new nuclear reactors online over the next 20 years, creating tens of thousands of carbon free energy jobs.

Green Jobs – The American Energy Act (H.R. 2846) also creates a Renewable and Alternative Energy Trust Fund to provide directed funding for new renewable energy projects.  Tens of thousands of new, skilled high paying jobs would be created in the hydropower, solar, wind, clean coal, biomass and geothermal energy industries.

Oil Shale Jobs – In February 2009, the Obama Administration delayed the new round of oil shale research, demonstration, and development leases that would help advance American technology and create high-tech jobs in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah and advocated undoing the current commercial rules for oil shale. The Republican PIONEER Act (H.R. 2540) would create new jobs by providing economic certainty to this growing industry and spur oil shale production by restoring RD&D leasing activities that were already underway prior to being halted by the Obama Administration.

Mining Jobs – The Locatable Mineral Royalty and Reclamation Act (H.R. 3201) would provide regulatory certainty for industry and allow for increased exploration and development of our domestic mineral resources, thus creating more jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign minerals.   Today, a quarter-of-a-million people work directly in America’s mining industry, earning the highest wages of any industrial workers in the country, yet American remains nearly 100% dependent on foreign nations for rare earth minerals regardless of having tremendous reserves of our own.

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