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LCV FACT CHECK: Perry Repeats Oil-Funded Job Statistics to Promote Energy Plan

In tonight’s CNN presidential debate, Perry again claimed his energy plan for expanding oil and gas drilling would create 1.2 million jobs. LCV released the following fact check in response:

Studies claiming that lifting regulation and expanding oil and gas drilling will create over a million jobs have been funded by oil companies.

• The American Energy Alliance funded a study by Joseph R. Mason in February 2009 that claimed lifting regulations and expanding oil and gas drilling would create $1.2 million jobs.  The president of the American Energy Alliance is Thomas Pyle, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries and the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association.  [The Economic Contribution of Increased Offshore Oil Exploration and Production to Regional and National Economies, February 2009; American Energy Alliance; Center for Responsive Politics]

• The American Petroleum Institute funded a study that projected 1.4 million jobs from easing regulations and dropping moratoriums.  [New York Times, 9/7/11]

The same studies project that it will take almost a decade for those jobs to appear.

• According to Joseph Mason, author of the American Energy Alliance study, the 1.2 million jobs won’t be created for another seven years. [Testimony of Dr. Joseph R. Mason at House Natural Resources Committee Hearing, 4/6/11]

• The API study also projects that job creation would take at least seven years.  [New York Times, 9/7/11]