Oil company profits drive stock prices and support dividend payments for shareholders. But it’s hardly only a bunch of tycoons who profit. It’s estimated that only 1.5 percent of energy stocks are owned by company executives. Most ownership is in mutual funds and IRAs owned by more than 100 million Americans.

When policymakers demonize oil industry growth, they’re actually encouraging the industry to sit on its cash and not invest in new projects. After all, if their antagonistic rhetoric becomes policy, bringing punitive tax increases or stricter exploration regulations, new projects could turn unprofitable.

Firms are understandably hesitant to start new ventures when the policy environment could quickly turn sour.

And fewer new projects means fewer new jobs, depressed tax revenue, less energy innovation and, ultimately, economic slowdown.

The oil industry might make for an easy target for political demagoguery. But its profits really represent good news in a struggling economy – and should not become a pretext for deprecating an industry that is playing a bright, vital role in the American economy.

Robert L. Bradley Jr. of Houston is the CEO and founder of the Institute for Energy Research and author of Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategies (Scrivener Publishing and John Wiley and Sons).