Biden’s Proposed Offshore Drilling Ban Would Kill 200,000 American Jobs and Billions in Government Revenue

May 26, 2020

“Moderate” Joe Biden is back at it again, taking shots at the oil and gas industry because he’s so desperate to gain support from eco-extremists in his own party. All the while, he’s isolating himself from the centrist voters necessary for him to beat President Trump in the upcoming presidential election.

According to a new study, released Tuesday by the National Ocean Industries Association, the potential consequences of Democratic nominee Biden’s proposal to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling on federal waters would cost nearly 200,000 jobs and strip the U.S. government of billions of dollars in revenue.

In 2019, the offshore oil and natural gas industry, directly and indirectly, supported roughly 345,000 jobs in the U.S. The report projects average employment to decline to 179,000 jobs under Biden’s proposed permitting ban. Jobs in the offshore oil and gas industry, which are capital-intensive and reliant on the manufacturing of associated equipment, are present in nearly all 50 states.

Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, was quoted in a recent Washington Examiner article, “You have this economic machine that is the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas industry that really feeds into the whole country. You destroy so much when you take it away.”

The study projects that oil and natural gas production from the Gulf of Mexico would decline on average by more than 55% to 1.1 million barrels per day until 2040, compared to what would be expected with no leasing restrictions.

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The study says offshore oil and natural gas production in the year 2040 would fall to 323,000 barrels per day compared to 1.96 million barrels per day with no leasing ban.

It also projects government revenues to fall with an offshore permitting ban, given the royalty payments and other fees that companies pay for producing on federal lands. Revenues to the government, some of which are distributed to Gulf Coast states, would average around $2.7 billion per year through 2040, compared to $5.4 billion in 2019.

Offshore oil and gas producers are already facing a harrowing situation because of the coronavirus-fueled price crash; however, the industry is expected to bounce back. If the proposed ban were enacted, it would push offshore production to other parts of the world who would reap the economic benefits. 

A drilling ban would eliminate nearly 200,000 jobs and take away billions of dollars in U.S. government revenue. The eco-left continues to push misguided policy in order to appeal to their party’s base, ignoring the implications this would have on American jobs and the U.S. economy.