Oil industry ramps up ad campaign in swing states

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is ramping up a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign in five swing states that will likely put President Obama’s energy policies on the defensive.

Voters in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina will hear and see more from API through the rest of the election cycle, API President and CEO Jack Gerard told reporters Tuesday. Gerard noted many of those states are friendly to natural gas.

“We are going there because that’s where the public dialogue is going on today, and we’re going to inject energy” into the discussion, Gerard said.

Gerard sharply criticized Obama’s treatment of oil-and-gas companies, saying the nation needs a “pro-growth president” and that “the business uncertainty and choices of this administration ... are detrimental” to the economy.

Gerard noted API plans to send letters to the White House and to GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, as well as other lawmakers, asking them “to do more than merely talk about energy.”

“This is not about political party,” Gerard said, explaining that API’s ads intend to inform and educate voters so they can call for “sound public policy that will help us create jobs.” He added that could be accomplished “through oil and gas.”

API’s track record belies Gerard’s claims of nonpartisanship — it donates overwhelmingly to Republican candidates. Gerard has personally donated to the Romney campaign, according to Federal Election Commission documents.

Conservative lawmakers also have adopted many of API’s talking points, ranging from expanded oil-and-gas drilling on federal lands to lowering the corporate tax rate. Gerard raised many of those issues during the call as parts of a preferred national energy policy.

Gerard disagreed with the role the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has played with fossil fuel companies. He said the agency is adding costly regulatory burdens “at the time the economy is on its back.”

Many Republican legislators share that view. They charge that Obama has used the EPA in a questionable manner to push a green-energy agenda at the expense of economic recovery and taxpayer dollars.

The advertising advance comes on the heels of an API poll conducted over the weekend by Harris Interactive. The 1,000-person survey found that about 9 in 10 respondents felt natural gas and oil exploration leads to jobs.

Three-quarters of survey takers also wanted to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would bring Canadian oil sands to Texas refineries. Obama has delayed approving a portion of that pipeline, which served as an olive branch to environmentalists who criticized the president early in his administration.

— This story was updated at 4:35 p.m.