Chairman Issa Statement on Gulf of Mexico Energy Production Potential Report

(WASHINGTON)—House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) today released the following statement regarding a new report issued by I.H.S. Cambridge Energy Research Associates and IHS Global Insight that documents job creation and energy security potential in the Gulf energy industry from ending the Obama Administration’s permit backlog:

“The Obama Administration has systematically blocked domestic energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, and today’s report puts that action in stark terms. It documents a 250 percent increase in the deepwater exploration permit backlog with a decrease of nearly 80 percent for plan approvals and deepwater drilling. That means a loss of $9 billion dollars in capital investment in 2011, along with a projected loss to the government of $25 billion in royalties and tax payments over the next 3 years, to say nothing of the tens of thousands of jobs lost.

“Our domestic energy resources are the largest in the world. Tapping these resources will create more than 500,000 jobs in the next three years, grow the economy and put us on the path to recovery.

“This report echoes what our committee has uncovered in previous research, and is an issue we will continue to investigate.”

A link to the report findings is here and a copy of the full report is here.

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