House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement after the Department of Labor announced the economy gained 162,000 jobs in March as unemployment remained at 9.7 percent.

“Considering our current economy, we should welcome any job growth that we can get. However, we should not confuse temporary jobs, such as 48,000 jobs accounted for by the U.S. Census, with permanent jobs that will actually help grow our economy. On Wednesday, President Obama had an opportunity to spur real job creation—possibly as much as 1.2 million jobs annually—by opening up our Outer Continental Shelf for offshore energy production. Unfortunately, the President took a giant step backwards as he locked up the vast majority of the OCS from future oil and gas exploration, and with it the possibility of creating millions of new jobs.”

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