NPRA Responds to State of the Union Address

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Charles T. Drevna, president of NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, today issued the following statement in response to President Obama's State of the Union address:

"President Obama is right to set job creation and economic growth as top priorities, but wrong to advocate policies that would do the exact opposite. If his attack demonizing the petroleum industry succeeds it will destroy jobs instead of creating them, raise costs for consumers instead of lowering them, and require billions in taxpayer dollars to fund unending subsidies for untested technologies unable to survive on their own.

"It makes no sense to destroy existing jobs held by hard-working Americans today in hopes of creating new jobs that may never materialize tomorrow. We need to grow our economy and increase the number of jobs, not simply try to shift jobs from one sector to another.

"Throughout history, government efforts to create economic winners and losers – no matter how well-intentioned – have been disappointments, and have been far less effective than the decisions consumers make with their buying power in a free market. Our nation should learn from the mistakes and failures of other nations that tried to control their economies.  

"America's petroleum refiners and petrochemical companies are high-tech manufacturers that provide jobs for more than 2 million Americans directly and indirectly, make modern life possible and strengthen our economic and national security. We stand ready to help our nation and our fellow citizens return to prosperity."

NPRA members include more than 450 companies, including virtually all U.S. refiners and petrochemical manufacturers. Our members supply consumers with a wide variety of products and services used daily in their home and businesses. These products include gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants and the chemicals that serve as "building blocks" in making everything from plastics to clothing to medicine to computers.

SOURCE National Petrochemical & Refiners Association

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