American Petroleum Institute

American Petroleum Institute

American Petroleum Institute logo
Headquarters Washington, DC
Membership
650 companies in petroleum industry
President and CEO
 Jack Gerard[1]
Website api.org

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent about 650 corporations involved in production, refinement, distribution, and many other aspects of the petroleum industry.

The association describes its mission as to influence public policy in support of a strong, viable U.S. oil and natural gas industry. Its chief functions on behalf of the industry include advocacy, negotiation and lobbying with governmental, legal, and regulatory agencies; research into economic, toxicological, and environmental effects; establishment and certification of industry standards; and education outreach.[2] API both funds and conducts research related to many aspects of the petroleum industry.[2] The current CEO and president is Jack Gerard.

The API sponsors a voter education campaign in the United States called Vote4Energy.[3]

Standards and certification

API Standards Committees are made up of subcommittees and task groups that works and maintain these standards. the list of Committee and Subcommittee is:[4]

API also defines the industry standard for the energy conservation of motor oil. API SN is the latest specification to which motor oils intended for spark-ignited engines should adhere since 2010. It supersedes API SM.[8]

API also defines and drafts standards for measurement for manufactured products such as:

API RP 500 and RP 505 classify the locations for electrical equipment in hazardous areas. [9] [10]

API has entered petroleum industry nomenclature in a number of areas:

Educator intervention

In addition to training industry workers and conducting seminars, workshops, and conferences on public policy, API develops and distributes materials and curricula for schoolchildren and educators. The association also maintains a website, Classroom Energy.

Criticism

In August 2016. on HBO's "Last Week Tonight", John Oliver showed an API ad that had run during the Rio Olympics. API had copied the style of their ad from the "Last Week Tonight" opening credits. Oliver quipped in the episode:

″You took our shit API! You took our shit! Everything, from the font to the design style! You so thoroughly copied our credits, by the end of that ad I was honestly worried I was about to watch 29 minutes of a rat-faced Englishman telling me sad news facts. And who wants that?″

In response, Oliver made his own ad mocking and copying the style of an API ad that was designed to appeal to millennials. His ad copied their ad down to the names of the characters in the ad. It focused on some of the bad things he claimed API had done in the past, such as funding climate change deniers and hiding their own studies that supported the reality of manmade climate change. It also pointed out that their logo ″looks like its being impaled by a polar bear's dick.″ In his mock ad, they inserted a graphic of a polar bear doing just that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMqbKO6BdxM [12]

Public relations, advocacy, and lobbying

API spent more than $3 million annually during the period 2005 to 2009 on lobbying; $3.6 million in 2009.[13] As of 2009, according to API’s quarterly “Lobbying Report” submitted to the U.S. Senate, the organization had 16 lobbyists lobbying Congress.[14] According to an investigation conducted by the International Business Times, API lobbied the Department of State for all of 2009 on "legislative efforts concerning oil sands" and "Canadian Oil Sands."[15]

The American Petroleum Institute also lobbied the State Department every quarter in 2009 . In three of four quarters, the group listed “legislative efforts concerning oil sands” as one of the areas it was focusing on in its lobbying, and in the final quarter, it listed “Canadian Oil Sands.” Among API’s members are ExxonMobil, which has invested in Canadian oil sands.

API lobbies and organizes its member employees' attendance at public events to communicate the industry's position on issues. A leaked summer 2009 memo from API President Jack Gerard asked its member companies to urge their employees to participate in planned protests (designed to appear independently organized) against the cap-and-trade legislation the House passed that same summer. "The objective of these rallies is to put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy and to aim a loud message at [20 different] states," including Florida, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Gerard went on to assure recipients of the memo that API will cover all organizational costs and handling of logistics. In response to the memo, an API spokesman told media that participants will be there (at protests) because of their own concerns, and that API is just helping them assemble.[16]

To help fight climate control legislation that has been approved by the U.S. House, API supports the Energy Citizens group, which is holding public events.[17][18] API encouraged energy company employees to attend one of its first Energy Citizen events held in Houston in August 2009, but turned away Texas residents who were not employed by the energy industry. Fast Company reported that some attendees had no idea of the purpose of the event.[19][20] In December 2009, Mother Jones magazine said API and Energy Citizens were promulgating climate disinformation.[21]

In the second half of 2008, as the U.S. presidential election neared, API began airing a series of television ads where spokeswoman Brooke Alexander encourages people to visit their new website, EnergyTomorrow.org

In January 2012, the American Petroleum Institute launched the voter education campaign - Vote 4 Energy. The campaign says that increased domestic energy production can create jobs, increase government revenue, and provide U.S. energy security. The Vote 4 Energy campaign does not promote any specific candidate or party, but rather provides voters with energy information to equip them to evaluate candidates on the federal and local levels and make decisions in favor of domestic energy on Election Day. The main components of the Vote 4 Energy campaign include the website - Vote4Energy.org - and social media communities, along with a series of advertisements and events around the country. The vote 4 energy campaign was criticized for presenting misleading arguments about the relationship between oil production and jobs whilst ignoring the potentially catastrophic consequences of increased fossil fuel consumption on the Earth's climate.[22]

The API successfully pushed for an end to a ban on American oil exports on the grounds that the ban increased demand for Russian and Iranian oil, thereby benefiting the unfriendly regimes in these countries. Critics noted that many of its member companies continued to maintain ongoing business in these countries whilst the lobbying campaign was in progress, leading to accusations of hypocrisy.[23] Furthermore, the API's campaigns have been criticized for advocating policies that are likely to exacerbate global warming and its associated problems.[24] The API has repeatedly funded conservative groups that deny the reality of anthropogenic global warming[25] in spite of the overwhelming scientific consensus that it presents a serious problem for the planet.[26]

It has many front groups, including the NH Energy Forum that in August 2011 hosted a New Hampshire event for Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry[27][28]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Jack N. Gerard - President and Chief Executive Officer, American Petroleum Institute - Biography". Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  2. 1 2 "About API". American Petroleum Institute. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  3. ↑ "About - Vote4Energy". Vote4Energy. Retrieved 2016-11-09.
  4. ↑ "Committee Information". www.api.org. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  5. ↑ "Committee on Standardization of Oilfield Equipment and Materials (CSOEM)". www.api.org. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  6. ↑ "API Committee on Refinery Equipment (CRE)". www.api.org. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  7. ↑ "API Committee on Petroleum Measurement (COPM)". www.api.org. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  8. ↑ "Engine Oil Guide" (PDF). American Petroleum Institute. March 2010.
  9. ↑ API RP 505 Recommended Practice for Classification of Locations for Electrical Installation at Petroleum Facilities Classified as Class I, Zone 0, Zone 1 and Zone 2 (2002).
  10. ↑ API RP 500 Recommended Practice for Classification of Locations for electrical Installation at Petroleum Facilities Classified as Class I, Division 1 and Division 2.
  11. ↑ API Unit, Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary, accessed 11 Nov. 2015.
  12. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMqbKO6BdxM
  13. ↑ "Lobbying: American Petroleum Institute". Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Second Quarter Lobbying Form, 2009, Secretary of the Senate". Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  15. ↑ Sirota, David (5 April 2016). "Oil Companies Donated to Clinton Foundation While Lobbying State Department". International Business Times. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  16. ↑ Stone, Daniel (August 20, 2009). "The Browning of Grassroots". Newsweek. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  17. ↑ New York Times, "Oil industry backs protests of emissions bill," August 19, 2009
  18. ↑ McNulty, Sheila (August 20, 2009). "The big oil backlash?". Financial Times. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  19. ↑ Schwartz, Ariel (August 21, 2009). "American Petroleum Institute Demonstrates How to Screw Up a Grassroots Event". Fast Company. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  20. ↑ Talley, Ian (August 11, 2009). "Lobby Groups to Use Town Hall Tactics to Oppose Climate Bill". The Wall Street Journal.
  21. ↑ Harkinson, Josh (December 4, 2009). "The Dirty Dozen of Climate Change Denial". Mother Jones. Retrieved August 17, 2015. Here's a guide to the dozen loudest components of the climate disinformation machine...Meet the 12 loudest members of the chorus claiming that global warming is a joke and that CO2 emissions are actually good for you.
  22. ↑ DaMelle, Brendan. "API's New 'Vote 4 Energy' Ad Campaign Is Thinly Veiled Election Year Bullying". desmogblog.com. DeSmog Blog. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  23. ↑ Horn, Steve. "Big Oil Argued for U.S. Crude Exports to Fend Off Iran, But First Exporter Vitol Group Also Exported Iran's Oil". DeSmog Blog. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  24. ↑ Readfearn, Graham. "What happened to the lobbyists who tried to reshape the US view of climate change?". theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  25. ↑ Dunlap, Riley; Jacques, Peter (2013). "Climate Change Denial Books and Conservative Think Tanks: Exploring the Connection" (PDF). American Behavioral Scientist. 20 (10): 1–33. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  26. ↑ Cook, John (2014). "Reply to 'Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature: A re-analysis'.". Energy Policy. 73: 706–708. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2014.06.002. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  27. ↑ Johnson, Brad (August 15, 2011). "Rick Perry's First Stop In New Hampshire Is Funded By Big Oil". ThinkProgress. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  28. ↑ "Rick Perry stumps Manchester - next stop Iowa", New Hampshire Public Radio, 14 August 2011.

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