Americans seem to have a love-hate relationship with major energy companies. On the one hand, our iconic brands are global leaders and symbols of U.S. technological and economic prowess. On the other hand, Big Energy takes the heat when the public gets restive over rising gas prices, or there’s an extended power outage.
A new Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) report highlights an underappreciated fact about energy companies—they are huge investors in the U.S. economy. In fact, along with telecoms and Internet-based businesses, they are leading our economic recovery.
Each year, PPI economists Michael Mandel and Diana Carew rank America’s top 25 “Investment Heroes”—the U.S. companies (excluding finance) that are making the biggest capital investments in economic innovation and jobs here at home. This year’s report shows that 10 U.S. energy companies made the list. These companies, involved in the exploration and production of oil and gas, or in energy distribution and power, invested a total of $57 billion in domestic capital expenditures last year. That figure represents 37 percent of the $152 billion that all 25 companies pumped into the U.S. economy in 2013. The energy companies on the list included many household names—Exxon (3), Chevron (4), ConocoPhillips (8), Exelon (10), and Duke Energy (11). But some lesser-known firms made the cut too, including Energy Transfer Equity (16), Enterprise Product Partners (18), and FreeportMcMoRan (24). All are helping to spur America’s energy transformation by investing in the nation’s shale oil and gas boom.
Continue reading at the Hill.
