Energy policy doesn’t have to be as complex and confusing as Washington sometimes makes it sound. Not when America is the world’s leading producer of natural gas and oil.

Abundant oil and natural gas are the foundation for all kinds of solutions — if policymakers would simply see them as the strategic American assets they are. Conversely, when some talk as though America faces intractable challenges, and suggest that answers to higher energy prices, inflation and security concerns are hard to find, they’re missing the obvious solutions in front of them in U.S. oil and gas.

It’s a distraction to the pursuit of a sound energy approach, one that capitalizes on America’s oil and natural gas leadership, to continue rhetoric that claims American producers are “sitting” on unused federal leases and/or drilling permits. False and false. Suggesting that fuel prices result from anything other than crude oil costs and market forces is likewise unhelpful.

Instead, the focus should be on policies that help support increased and sustained natural gas and oil production:

• Federal access: The administration has yet to complete a single valid lease sale, now 15 months since it took office. At this point in President Obama’s first term, nearly 50 lease sales had been held. The Interior Department has announced plans for a round of sales this summer, but it has scaled back available acreage and proposed higher royalty rates.
• Offshore planning: The federal five-year offshore leasing program that helps guide investment, exploration and development decisions years before actual production is scheduled to expire next month. It’s required by law, yet Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in April there’s no immediate plan to release a new one.
• LNG export approvals: The Energy Department should continue to approve all liquefied natural gas export applications and ask Congress to allow swift approvals of exports to non-free trade agreement nations.
• Infrastructure: Washington should support infrastructure construction, including pipelines, that is needed to move U.S. oil and natural gas to refineries and processing facilities, as well as to consumers and shipping ports.

Again, America has the oil and natural gas that is fundamental to economic growth and energy security, as well as important environmental progress. Washington should acknowledge and support U.S. energy leadership, which will help it address a number of challenges. We can meet these challenges from a position of strength, thanks to abundant American oil and natural gas.

API president and CEO Mike Sommers says: “The plain fact is that if nations do not control their own energy, their fate is in the hands of others. And we must never let that happen to the United States of America. We talked about energy security forever, and then we finally achieved it. We worked hard to put America in a position of strength and greater independence. It would be foolish, and even tragic, to ever give it up. That alone is a powerful argument for more investment, more exploration and more innovation to keep us in a commanding position no matter what the future might bring. Energy policy does not have to be an endless series of crisis-management decisions. Our aim should be to avoid crises by shaping events instead of waiting on them.”

This story was excerpted from the Energy Tomorrow blog written by Mark Green. Read the complete report on the American Petroleum Institute website. Click here.