Ever since taking office, President Obama has erected barriers to increased offshore American energy production and systematically closed off new areas to drilling. Study after study has shown that increased offshore energy production will create jobs, grow the economy, lower prices and provide significant revenues to the states and federal government.

As the chart (below) shows, under President Obama, federal oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has declined by 18 percent since he took office. President Obama isn’t working to increase that dismal performance in his second term as his Administration has offered the lowest number of offshore leases in the history of America’s offshore energy program. Just last week, the Energy Information Administration released disturbing new data that shows that for the last four years, United States has been increasing its dependence of dangerously unstable Middle Eastern oil.

These are the economic facts of increased offshore energy production that President Obama is ignoring:

Institute for Energy Research Study – released February 2013 – Opening access to federal lands that are currently closed off due to administrative action or lack of leasing could:

• Increase GDP by $127 billion annually for the next seven years, and $450 billion annually for the next thirty years with a cumulative 37-year increase in GDP of $14.4 trillion.
• Create 552,000 jobs over the next seven years, with almost 2 million jobs annually for the next thirty years.
• Lead to $32 billion in annual wage increases over the next seven years, with a cumulative $3.7 trillion increase over a 37 year cycle.
• Bring in $2.7 trillion more in tax revenues into the federal government over the next 37 years, while state and local tax revenues equal $1.1 trillion in the same time period.

Wood Mackenzie Study – released September 2011 - U.S. policies which encourage development of new and existing resources could:

• Create 1.4 million jobs.
• Increase domestic oil and natural gas production by over 10 million barrels per day.
• Raise over $800 billion of cumulative additional government revenue.

IHS CERA Study – released July 2011 - Taking proactive action in the Gulf of Mexico to increase the pace of plan and permit approvals for oil and gas resources could:

• Create 230,000 American jobs – nationwide (not just in the Gulf).
• Increase domestic oil production of more than 400,000 barrels of oil per day.
• Bring in nearly $12 billion in tax and royalty revenues to state and federal treasuries.
• Reduce amount the U.S. sends to foreign governments for imported oil by around $15 billion.

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