Protecting Jobs, Economic Opportunities, and National Security for All Americans by Ensuring Appropriate Support of Innovative Technologies for Using Our Domestic Natural Resources
Record date: 2020-11-04
( printed page 70039) Memorandum of October 31, 2020 Protecting Jobs, Economic Opportunities, and National Security for All Americans by Ensuring Appropriate Support of Innovative Technologies for Using Our Domestic Natural Resources Memorandum for the Secretary of State[,] the Secretary of the Treasury[,] the Secretary of Defense[,] the Attorney General[,] the Secretary of the Interior[,] the Secretary of Agriculture[,] the Secretary of Commerce[,] the Secretary of Labor[,] the Secretary of Transportation[,] the Secretary of Energy[,] the United States Trade Representative[,] the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency[,] the Director of
What this record contains
- Federal Register document
- 2020-24601
- Publication date
- 2020-11-04
- Citation
- 85 FR 70039
- Issuing office
- Executive Office of the President
Official record excerpt
( printed page 70039) Memorandum of October 31, 2020 Protecting Jobs, Economic Opportunities, and National Security for All Americans by Ensuring Appropriate Support of Innovative Technologies for Using Our Domestic Natural Resources Memorandum for the Secretary of State[,] the Secretary of the Treasury[,] the Secretary of Defense[,] the Attorney General[,] the Secretary of the Interior[,] the Secretary of Agriculture[,] the Secretary of Commerce[,] the Secretary of Labor[,] the Secretary of Transportation[,] the Secretary of Energy[,] the United States Trade Representative[,] the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency[,] the Director of the Office of Management and Budget[,] the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs[,] the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy[,] the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers[,] the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy[,] the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality[, and] the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct the following: Section 1. Purpose . This memorandum sets forth policies related to protecting American jobs, economic opportunities, and national security by ensuring appropriate support of hydraulic fracturing and other innovative technologies for the use of domestic natural resources, including energy resources. In support of these policies, this memorandum directs certain officials to assess the potential effects of efforts to ban or restrict the use of such technologies. Sec. 2. Background . Our country has been favored with abundant land, wildlife, and natural resources. Americans have rightly seen this abundance as both an opportunity and a responsibility. Our blessings have rightly been a great source of national pride and gratitude. As we enjoy these bounties, we are also bound by a responsibility of stewardship to use, protect, and preserve them for future generations. Among the greatest of our blessings are our energy resources, which all too often we take for granted. Our Nation has untold potential to deliver energy to provide us with the necessities—light, heat, cold, food, and water, to say nothing of modern telecommunications—for our daily lives at home and at work, and our travel from place to place. Reliable, affordable energy is essential for running our homes, businesses, farms, factories, health care facilities, and schools, and is critical to every sector of our economy, including our energy-intensive and trade-exposed industries. Access to dependable, inexpensive sources of energy is a cornerstone of our well-being, of our economic strength and global competitiveness, and of our national security. One of the great success stories of our time has been the development of hydraulic fracturing (often known as “fracking”) and other technologies to facilitate the extraction of natural resources from the earth. Hydraulic fracturing is a process that provides access to reservoirs of natural gas and petroleum by opening rocks deep underground. When coupled with horizontal drilling and other new technologies, fracking has opened up new sources of inexpensive, reliable, abundant energy for our country. It has also produced jobs and economic opportunities for many Americans. ( printed page 70040) In a report issued in October 2019, the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) estimated that by lowering energy prices, the use of fracking and other innovations had saved United States consumers $203 billion per year, or $2,500 in annual savings for a family of four. These savings disproportionately benefit low-income households, which spend a larger share of their income on energy bills, representing 6.8 percent of income for the poorest fifth of households compared to 1.3 percent for the richest fifth of households. The CEA estimated that greater productivity had reduced the domestic price of natural gas by 63 percent as of 2018; had led to a 45 percent decrease in the wholesale price of electricity; and had reduced the global price of oil by 10 percent as of 2019. The transformation wrought by technologies such as fracking is not only the result of America's natural abundance and Americans' capacity for scientific discovery and practical invention. It is also a testament to our Nation's greatest resource: our hardworking men and women. Energy workers have dedicated their lives to an industry that is essential to the modern world, and
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