Report on Increased Energy Production Targets President Obama's Speech Tonight

API president, Jack Gerard, said API proposals could generate about $800 billion in new government revenues over the next 20 years and help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil by doubling oil and gas production by 2030. President Obama backdrop for tonight’s speech is gloomy job reports and the threat of a double dip recession.

As noted in the report, the oil industry is looking to speed up issuance of leases and drilling permits. They are lobbying to open drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and Alaska, areas that are now closed to drilling. In addition they call for New York State to lift its moratorium on natural gas drilling which has become controversial because fracking, the method used to extract natural gas from shale, is assumed to pollute the water supply.

The industry is also looking to get approval for a planned $7 billion pipeline that would carry crude oil extracted from tar sand in Alberta, Canada, to refiners along the Texas Gulf Coast.

The president’s speech takes place tonight at 7 p.m. before a joint session of Congress. It is expected to last 45 minutes and will lay out his proposals to rescue the sagging economy.