Critique an Editorial - Perry's Unrealistic Job Numbers

As I was reading this blog, Media Uncritically Repeat Perry's Unrealistic Job Numbers, I found it quite amusing what Republican presidential candidate, Rick Perry, had to say about domestic fossil fuels. Mr. Perry claimed he could create over a million jobs by expanding domestic fossil fuel production. Of course, further scrutiny of this claim found Mr. Perry’s estimate is based almost entirely on highly arguable assumptions, and to be blown out of proportion.  An energy expert on the Council for Foreign Relations, Michael Levi, analyzed the numbers provided in Mr. Perry’s proposal from the API, (American Petroleum Institute). Levi found the numbers to be “unrealistic”.  Seems a little biased that Rick Perry uses numbers from a study that was done by API… the largest gas and oil industry trade group.

I found another article on this topic, from The Atlantic, titled Deconstructing Rick Perry's Energy and Jobs Plan, The conclusion of this article states: “The numbers that Perry and Romney are offering for job creation in the energy sector are unrealistic. Five hundred thousand is a reasonable upper limit for the number of jobs that a new policy might create by 2030, of which 130,000 or so might actually be in oil and gas. Taking into account market dynamics could lower those numbers further.”   It seems that others agree that Perry’s numbers of 1.2 to 1.5 million new jobs is unrealistic.

Another question discussed, “Is Perry right that energy is a ripe field for job creation?” Many economists don’t agree that domestic energy production is a top priority in creating jobs.  But, there is agreement that there is definitely potential in this field.    Economist, Peter Morici, from the University of Maryland, wrote that "shutting down US oil and gas development is costing the US economy millions of jobs."  Morici believes that an emphasis on domestic production could create jobs by dramatically reducing America's trade deficit.  Promotion of energy production would also spill over into job creation in other industries because refineries and pipelines would boost demand for construction, steel and heavy machinery workers.

I don’t agree with Perry because I personally don’t think domestic energy productions are among the top five priorities for job growth. Yes, there could be some potential in this field but not over a million jobs worth. Not to mention nearly half the 1.2 million jobs the Texas governor is promising won't be online before 2016.  And, what about our nations push to find and use alternate energy solutions?  It is projected that we will deplete our petroleum resources by 2043.  America does not want to be dependent on foreign oil to run our country… for many reasons.  And all the research shows that burning these fossil fuels are dangerous and harmful to our environment.  I would rather see more efforts and jobs created in finding and utilizing alternate energy resources.