WASHINGTON — Proposed energy legislation in Congress could cost Colorado more than 57,000 new nonfarm jobs by 2030 and reduce household purchasing power by about $1,000, according to a study commissioned by the oil industry’s main trade group.
Environmental groups slammed the analysis as riddled with exaggerations and false assumptions.
The study focused on seven provisions under consideration as part of a new energy bill and concluded the measures would drop gross state product by about 2 percent over the next two decades, with about 15,000 fewer jobs created by 2015 in Colorado.
“This legislation would put consumers in a squeeze,” said W. David Montgomery, a vice president at CRA International, which performed the study on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute, or API.
Montgomery said the oil-and-gas industry would take a hit but that manufacturers would be hurt across the board since proposed legislative items would cause consumers to have less disposable income because of rising energy prices.
Pete Morton, a senior resource economist for the Wilderness Society, said the state has about 26,000 workers in the natural-resources and mining industry, so it was unclear how 57,000 jobs would be lost.
“This is a biased study that only looks at the costs but not the benefits of the proposed legislation,” Morton said.
According to the study, Colorado would create 57,464 fewer jobs by 2030 if Congress passed the provisions, which include proposals to raise fuel efficiency by 40 percent, repeal subsidies to oil companies and force utilities to expand the use of renewable energy.
Nationally, the API projected domestic oil production would decline about 4 percent over the same period, with a net loss of about 5 million jobs, including 594,000 in the Rocky Mountain West.
A senior economic adviser for the API, Rayola Dougher, said the study’s authors used conservative estimates of future energy costs and considered the positive impact of new jobs in the renewable-energy industry.
Montgomery said the overall numbers on job and income loss came from a computer analysis of federal government data and proposed legislation.
But the bipartisan Joint Economic Committee in Congress also released a study Wednesday arguing that proposed tax changes would not cause an increase in oil and natural-gas prices.
Also, several of the legislative provisions in question may not make it into a final congressional bill, as lawmakers continue to negotiate details this week on a final energy package.
On Wednesday, lawmakers announced that a ban on drilling atop the Roan Plateau would not make it into legislation up for a vote this week in the House, although its fate remains uncertain in the Senate.
Development advocates have calculated that drilling on the Roan could provide natural gas to more than 4 million homes and bring up to $6 billion in revenue, although many environmentalists contend the numbers are wildly overstated.
Drilling on the Roan was not one of the seven provisions in the energy bill that was under consideration in the CRA study.
Staff writer Andy Vuong contributed to this report.
Christa Marshall: 202-662-8990 or cmarshall@denverpost.com
