Gas and Oil Industry Group Launches National Ad Campaign for 2012 Election

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

January 4, 2012 | 4:04 PM

API's Vote 4 Energy website

“Vote 4 Energy.” That’s what the American Petroleum Institute says they want voters to do when deciding who to choose in the upcoming Presidential race. API began running the ads promoting domestic natural gas and oil production nationwide earlier this week. The campaign also targets one of the most politically traversed subway stops in the country — the Capitol South Metro station in Washington D.C.’s Capitol Hill. And API created a smart election oriented website that can be searched by state with information on voter registration, local polling places and a voter guide for every candidate. Here’s the link for Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, who introduced the Frack Act. The page lists ratings from organizations such as the AFL-CIO, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Business Industry Political Action Committee.
In a speech delivered Wednesday at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., American Petroleum Institute’s CEO Jack Gerard promoted the development of new domestic sources of oil and natural gas and said that government regulation threatened to prevent the U.S. from becoming independent of Mid-East oil. Gerard pushed for new shale development, and said the controversial extraction process known as fracking was already well regulated by local authorities. You can hear Gerard’s entire speech here.
API has more than 500 member companies, from big oil to small, independent producers. Gerard says the campaign will not be partisan. “It’s not an ad campaign,” said Gerard, “it’s a conversation with the American people.” At the beginning on his speech Gerard says he likes to look at what the “American people have to say.” Then he played a long video of one American person after the other saying they are in favor of increasing the development of domestic energy source, and favor energy independence. A no-brainer for most, and easy to mock. As environmentalists have already done with this very smart spoof:

Gerard insisted the campaign will not support any one candidate. But he did have a warning for President Barack Obama if he does not allow construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. “There will be consequences,” said Gerard.