Where does your oil come from?

(photo courtesy Michelle Meiklejohn)

Here are some fun (slightly outdated) graphs from The Heritage Foundation, our favorite think (like Regan) tank. (Click on the graphs to see larger, more readable versions.)


As you can see, somewhere around the beginning of Bill Clinton's presidency, the dismantling of the Soviet Union, and my family's move to the coast (where were you!?), oil imports began rapidly outpacing domestic U.S. oil production. The Heritage blames the environmental laws (and their curbing of domestic production) for making us dependent on foreign oil (not, of course, any lack of political will to build a clean, renewable energy economy, or lust for exponential economic growth or anything.)

EDIT: Also notice the incredible rise in oil imports beginning around 1969. Why? And the incredible drop right around 1979 -- exactly when the Iranian Revolution ousted the U.S.-backed Iranian government.


We've got domestic production at a good 1/3 of our oil consumption. Not bad. Notice NAFTA basically making a majority of the U.S's oil needs under "domestic" control. OPEC (what the western media calls "a cartel" and others call "an oil producers body") makes up another third and another central player in supplying the U.S. addiction. And as the little slivers suggest, the U.S. certainly isn't opposed to other oil opportunities as well: Is that oil you got there lying under the ground? I mean...if you're offering? (No U.S! Ecuador actually just offered to get paid to KEEP THEIR OIL IN THE GROUND! Were you not listening!?)

Also, some more food for thought next time you're pissed off waiting for the car in front of you at the gas station. See that 6% from Nigeria and that 4% from Iraq. Yeah, be thankful. Or feel guilty. Either way, feel something. Oil is borne out of war-torn environments. And it's not by coincidence. That oil ain't comin' easily...or without militaries.

No wonder gas isn't cheap these days! Military security is expensive man!


Sabotage of pipeline in northern Iraq. Dec 2009. Al Jazeera.