Oil industry and Environmentalists react to Obama's State of the Union Address

President Obama's State of the Union Address sparked praise from the oil industry and criticism from environmentalists. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)

 

During last night’s State of the Union Address, President Obama praised our nation’s energy output, linking the recent oil boom to the creation of jobs and a nation that is less dependent on foreign oil than it has been in over a decade.

“After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future,” said President Obama, indirectly praising our nation’s recent oil boom. “We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years,” he said.

Though some of this new energy production comes from renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, thousands of the new jobs being created across the nation stem from the harvesting of natural-gas.

“We produce more natural gas than ever before – and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it,” Obama said. While this may be true, environmentalists worry that the extraction of natural-gas through methods such as fracking will be harmful to the land that sits above and around the shale rock thousands of feet below.

Taking little time to issue a response of their own, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune stated that, “Moving the nation off fossil fuels, and confronting the climate disruption caused by the burning of those fuels, is a matter of such importance to the nation and the world that -- for the first time in the Sierra Club’s 120-year history -- we will soon participate in an act of civil disobedience to demonstrate our resolve.”  

The Sierra Club, one of the nation’s oldest environmental groups comprised of roughly 2.1 million members, will be holding the nation’s largest climate rally – titled #ForwardOnClimate – at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on February 17. The rally will focus on the Keystone XL pipeline, natural-gas exports, arctic drilling, and a clean environment.

In an effort to ease the worries of those like the Sierra Club who are hesitant about natural-gas, Obama stated that, “Indeed, much of our new-found energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together.  So tonight, I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good.”

The trust will consist of a non-partisan coalition of CEO’s and retired generals and admirals. “Let’s take their advice and free our families and businesses from the painful spikes in gas prices we’ve put up with for far too long,” said President Obama.

In a statement released shortly after the president’s speech, the CEO of the Marcellus Shale Coalition – an industry group based in Pittsburgh, PA – Kathryn Z. Klaber issued a response to last night’s address. “As the President made clear, the responsible and effectively-regulated development of clean-burning American natural gas has lowered ‘nearly everyone’s energy bills’ all while safeguarding our environment and strengthening our economy,” she said.

Klaber also agreed that the thriving natural-gas industry will provide thousands of Americans new jobs, praising the president’s, “commitment to streamlining the permitting process aimed at further increasing domestic energy development.”