Profiling Team Romney: Continental Resources’ Harold Hamm and American Petroleum Institute’s Jack Gerard
by Anna Simet (Biodiesel Magazine) Harold Hamm, a.k.a. “America’s Oil Man,” is chairman of Romney’s energy policy advisory team and likely his first runner-up choice for energy secretary after American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard.
An Oklahoma native, Hamm is a champion of domestic oil and gas exploration and has been CEO of self-founded company Continental Resources since 1967. He was ranked by Forbes as the 30th richest person in the U.S., owns the rights to more oil than any other American, and boasts a rags-to-riches success story that he credits to achieving the American dream.
…During the aforementioned testimony, purposed to stress the vitality of Big Oil tax breaks to America achieving energy independence, Hamm remarked that America has a huge supply of oil that is ready to be tapped, and removing the tax policy would result in the loss of thousands of industry jobs that pay double the national average for manufacturing jobs, a 30 percent decrease in drilling activity, and increased energy costs for the consumer.
As energy secretary, Hamm would press for the reduction of regulatory burdens on the oil industry, permitting more drilling on federal lands, and for development of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which he was initially opposed to.
…Hamm’s potential appointment as energy secretary would not likely benefit renewable energy or biofuels, as evidenced in an opinion editorial he authored for the Oklahoman in March 2011. Hamm wrote that he feared Obama “will attempt to drive us headlong into the magical fantasy of alternative and renewable energy,”… READ MORE and MORE
Excerpt from article on Jack Gerard: “Renewable energy sources are an important part of America’s future energy mix, and further industry developments and new technologies to advance energy efficiency will also play a critical role in maximizing future resources,” the piece said. “But it is also evident that for at least the next 50 years, and possibly much longer, a majority of America’s energy supply will come from fossil fuels.”
At the World Affairs Council of Charlotte in August, Gerard spoke about energy. “When you consider U.S. fossil fuels, nuclear energy, renewable and alternative energy sources such as biofuels,” he said, “you see a country with the largest energy resources in the world.”
But, Gerard added the country cannot stay trapped by policies and energy philosophies that say the country should have less oil and natural gas, “so that we can have more of something else.” READ MORE
