I recently entered the Oklahoma Department of Commerce building to attend a Governor’s International Team meeting and noticed a poster that was in the entry. The first words at the top of the poster grabbed my attention: oil, natural gas, wind, and unconventional resources. I stopped to read further.
There was a lot of information on the poster. Most of the statistics I was aware of but the poster properly highlighted Oklahoma as an American leader:
Oklahoma is the 4th-largest producer of natural gas in the US, it has the largest number of CNG filling stations in the US per capita, natural gas accounts for more than 80% of the energy produced in the State.
The State is the 5th-largest producer of crude oil in the US, it has five refineries, producing 3% of the total US refined oil capacity (500,000 barrels per day), it is eighth in the US in terms of total energy production, and it has the largest oil storage facility in the world.
Oklahoma’s geothermal industry employs 4200 Oklahomans. The State is home to the International Ground Heat Pump Association.
Oklahoma is fifth for total new capacity, 8th for existing capacity, and 7th in net electricity generation from wind.
I went through my files at the office and found other information about Oklahoma’s impact on the economy.
In an Oklahoma Energy Resources Board report, as an example, in 2011 alone “nearly $1 billion in direct gross production tax payments, including $504 million in oil gross production taxes and another $459 million in natural gas gross tax payments, $2.35 billion in federal personal income tax payments, $700 million in state personal income tax payments, $563 million in state sales tax payments, and $503 million in local sales tax payments”.
“Direct output from the industry is estimated to be just more than $35 billion ($30 billion from the production side and $5 billion in drilling). In order to generate $35 billion in output, the industry purchases inputs from supporting industries, employs more than 83,000 workers and pays more the $9.4 billion in labor income.”
America, and for that matter, Oklahoma, is and needs to take the lead in energy leadership for us to achieve energy security. Throughout the speeches I make around the country, I state my belief that America should be the center for energy excellence because the world needs our expertise. We cannot afford to continue to rely on foreign nations that don’t consider us friends to fulfill our energy needs or miss the opportunity to create a forward-thinking infrastructure that will support the American way of life.
Go to www.peoplesenergyplan.com to join the effort.
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