US begins to break foreign oil ‘addiction’

Source: Financial Times (UK)

The US is starting to break its “addiction” to foreign oil as high prices, more efficient cars, and the use of ethanol significantly cut the share of its oil imports for the first time since 1977.

The country’s foreign oil dependency is expected to fall from 60 per cent to 50 per cent in 2015, before rising again slightly to 54 per cent in 2030, according to the head of the Department of Energy’s statistical arm.

<snip>

The US decline in foreign oil dependency is already becoming more visible, with imports making up 57.9 per cent in the first three months of this year, down from 58.2 last year. Guy Caruso, head of the US Energy Information Administration, said that that trend was set to continue as people adjusted to high oil prices and the impact of the Energy Independence and Security Act, which became law in December 2007, was felt.

<snip>

This new trend is likely to have domestic and international policy implications, making it harder to prove the case for drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to reverse the ambitious biofuels production targets regardless of their impact on global food prices.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eda93eea-259f-11dd-b510-000077b07658.html

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Speculators with long positions won't be smiling quite as much.

How about a govt. subsidised stand alone PV array to charge that electric car?

we are not even close to "breaking" the addiction. We are at the point of "jonesing" for another fix. When we are truly at the point of trying to overcome our problem is when we have to start making the painful decisions (funding mass transit, actively go after overconsuming vehicles by taxing them, LIFESTYLE CHANGES). Like overcoming any addiction, it will not be painless, but in the end it is a better life.

They're already over $4/gal. for regular in some cities and we haven't even hit the peak driving season yet.

does anyone really think that these numbers, this far out, really mean anything close to reality?

I'm telling people to brace themselves for gas to hit $20 to $30 a gallon by 2012 -- within 4 years.

Oil Prices in 2012

Ptoooey.

First of all, this is using bush-cooked statistics. The DOE has a loyal bushie at its helm, and he knows that now is the time to fudge the numbers so McSame can "continue bush's successful energy policy."

Second, even if true, a miniscule 0.3% decrease hardly equals "breaking" anything. Something so trivial could be explained by, say, less manufacturing of other oil products like asphalt or plastic or candle wax. And don't forget that our entire military is in the middle east, getting its "oil" from in-theater sources instead of a fuel depot in Newport News or Camp Pendleton.

as the price rises. The price rises as demand from China and India go up.

And ethanol from corn is the biggest fraud ever. As we turn our food supply into gas, more oil is available to ship to China and India.

The Dep't of Energy can get away with this bullsh*t because Americans are the most ignorant about economics of any people on the planet, and will grasp at any straws.

:yourock:

Its not efficient and it cuts into food way too much.

SUGARCANE ethonol is another matter completely. La. Miss. Ala. Fl. and Ga. are all capable of growing more than enough for the whole country.

Works for Brazil

...I'll believe they've got a true appreciation of how much gas costs and are interested in conserving.

It's something I read in a scientific American a couple years back.
There is an enzyme "In the gut of the termite" that breaks down bio matter (waste veggie products like the stalks) in such a way as it can be used as bio fuel!
Think of it, high quality ethanol, and med quality Bio Diesel from the SAME CROP!
Not only that but this is recycling a tit;'s best. use the waste as opposed to just tossing it (ok ok I know, it's not wasted, it's mulched and tilled back into the land... at least in theory)

I agree with the free-standing solar collector for electrics.
See the problem isn't so much that we're burning XYZ for fuel, it;'s where that XYZ comes from.

You have so much carbon in the atmosphere. Plants absorb that carbon. 100 million years ago that carbon was absorbed by the plants all over the TROPICAL earth. Those plants were killed and covered by some great cataclysm. The carbon they absorbed was buried and REMOVED semi permanently from the atmosphere.
We can burn as much plant based fuel as we want and it won't bother the carbon balance in the atmosphere. Carbon won't go up... the problem is that we;'re burning COAL and stuff FROM THE GROUND that releases NEW carbon into the atmosphere!
It's not that burning wood is bad, it's burning NEW CARBON into the atmosphere that ruins it for everyone!

fun facts next time someone bitches about global warming being fake.

Burning Ethanol != burning petrol!

"this is my last fix, tomorrow I quit, I mean it...really".

Like how it's causing starvation for millions of people around the world.

Like the fact that ethano takes more energy to produce than it gives.

Frying pan into the fire; it seems to be the American way.