News Media Contact:
Jeff Eshelman / Nicole Daigle
202.857.4722 / 800.433.2851

For Immediate Release
September 23, 2009

WASHINGTON - At a United Nations speech in Manhattan yesterday, President Barack Obama told world leaders that his Administration will work to "phase out fossil fuel subsidies,"  which, of course, is tantamount to massive tax increases on American energy producers and consumers. Barry Russell, president and CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), issued the following statement today in response:

"The President's proposed action is based on academic notions that simply do not apply in the real world. These proposals pose severe consequences to U.S. energy producers and will impact the entire U.S. economy. Close to 85 percent of the energy that drives the U.S. economy is fossil fuel based. And more than 60 percent of the overall energy American families, small businesses, and manufacturers depend on each day is from natural gas and oil. And while the President should be praised for working to encourage wiser use of the energy we have, the fact remains that oil and gas will continue to meet our energy needs for years to come - well beyond his Administration and his successors.

"Natural gas and oil are not only essential fuels for America, they are the feedstocks for the plastics in our computers, the fertilizer to grow our food and biofuels, the energy for manufacturing our windmills and electric cars. They are essential to the Obama Administration's clean energy future and national security agendas.

"Simply put, why the Administration would shut down 20 percent of our nation's oil production and 12 percent of its natural gas is unfathomable.  Why it would seek to take away 25 to 40 percent of the capital that finds and produces American natural gas - half of which comes from wells developed in the past 4 years - is undecipherable.  Why it would choose to hand the nation's energy future to foreign leaders like Hugo Chavez, whose hatred for our country is as clear as the glistening spittle he spews in his anti-American speeches, is clearly a tragic miscalculation."

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• H.G. "Buddy" Kleemeier, IPAA chairman and CEO of Oklahoma-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Company, recently testified before the US Senate Finance Committee on the Administration's energy tax increase proposals. Click HERE to view his testimony.
• IPAA on the Obama Budget: 'We Can't Tax Our Way to Energy Independence'
• Click HERE for an explanation of the increased tax proposals in the President's budget.
• Click HERE for a "Timeline History of Natural Gas and Oil Tax Provisions."