American Energy Independence

Image courtesy of The Daily Sun

By Joe Frederick

What does it mean to be energy independent? One could reach a conclusion by adding up our net energy production—oil, gas, renewables, and coal—and subtracting our total consumption. Gas and oil are included in this metric because they account for 68% of our energy consumption, and while exporting more than one import is a good thing, the U.S. is still importing and thus partially dependent. The change of exporting more than importing happened in October 2019, under President Trump’s administration, and was the accumulation of a trend that had been present all the way back in 2005, under President Bush. This is attributed to the fact that the energy economy since the early 2000s acted like a well-oiled machine. 

In 2005, the U.S. imported 12.5 million barrels per day (BPD), and by the time President Bush left office, the U.S was importing 4.8 million BPD. During the Trump Administration, the downward trend continued and during his last year in office, our net imports of oil turned negative. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit for the first four months of 2020, the U.S. was exporting an average of one million BPD, because the stay-at-home orders caused energy demand to plummet. However, in May and June, the U.S. began importing again. For the full year of 2020, the U.S. became a net exporter. In 2021, the U.S. became net exporters and net importers on a month-to-month basis, and people were worried whether or not the U.S. would be a net exporter the whole year. While the average net export over the year was just 162,000 BPD, far less than 2020, the U.S. was still a net exporter and thus energy independent. 

Despite this good news, the U.S. is still experiencing rising gas prices, ranging from $3.77 to nearly $6. There is something amiss: if the U.S. is a net exporter and energy independent, then why are Americans seeing these astronomical gas prices. The answer to this question is Russia, who produces one out of every ten barrels of oil consumed around the world and produces a third of Europe’s energy. This could get even worse as President Putin has been known to be in contact with the President of Bolivia urging for a lithium mining contract that could make the already expensive renewable energies and electric cars even more expensive if they are used as weapons like they use oil. Even if the U.S. sanctions the Russian energy economy to discourage such predatory tactics, there are still worries of cyber attacks that could do even worse damage to the U.S. energy economy. One example was last year when a Russian criminal group crippled a Colonial Oil pipeline, which caused panic buying across the southeast United States. 

While Americans are without a doubt energy independent, that does not mean that the U.S. shouldn’t worry about the energy market across the globe, and a close eye and the right actions can not only help other countries but potentially drive down our own domestic prices.