Millions of new jobs could be created from more stringent taxes imposed on the oil industry

The API, American Petroleum Institute has long since opposed any sort of reforms that have been proposed to the industry, passing them off as unnecessary taxing techniques and simply ways to kill off viable and much-needed jobs. The institute has long since stood behind the oil companies through thick and thin, under the pretence of protecting its people’s best interest.

The recent $1 billion spike in the oil and natural gas industry taxes provoked a similar reaction from the organisation, which immediately released an announcement that in order to meet the taxing mark, more than 5,000 jobs will have to be razed from the industry’s itineraries. And with $80 billion more in taxes coming, it looks like more than 400,000 jobs will be lost in total.

Yet further research into the cause may rectify the seemingly catastrophic figures perpetuated by API. Several research teams from the University of Massachusetts concluded that if the funds taken away from API are transferred into the green energy market instead, the results will likely produce more than enough jobs to compensate for the oil industry losses. In fact, the numbers drawn up by the teams suggest that if $100 billion is taken from conventional fuel industries and pumped into the clean energy industry; over 2 million new jobs will be created in the process. Where every $1 billion deduction from oil razes 5,000 positions, the same amount added to green energy makes way for 15,000 new jobs. The clean energy is simply more intensive as far as labour goes, and less intensive in terms of capital invested.

Yet representatives from API have argued that the mass amount of green jobs created is much less profitable and lucrative than those lost in the oil business. Yet research has shown that the switch of capital to clean energy would yield three times as many equal-pay positions as conventional fuel does.

It is clear that the seemingly oppositional tax hikes are actually beneficial for the economy of the country.

Once the negative effect that the oil and natural gas industries have on the climate system is brought into the equation, the balance shifts almost universally to clean energy.

In an ironic twist, the fervently protesting American oil companies would actually stand to profit greatly from the tax increases. Most of them already have the mass capital, the experience and manufacturing facilities to fully exploit the green energy market. Despite the fact that massive scientific and engineering advances will have to be made in the future in order to maximize green energy production the country, present oil companies stand to benefit from the fuel industry’s switch on the most immediate level.