America’s Net Petroleum Imports: 1968-2017

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Based on new EIA data through October, only 20.3% of the net petroleum products supplied in the US so far this year came from imports. That’s the lowest level of net petroleum imports since the 19.5% share in 1968, nearly 50 years. What the 2005 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was supposed to achieve with ethanol — reduced reliance on foreign oil — has actually been achieved much more successfully through unplanned and unanticipated breakthroughs in drilling and extraction technologies (fracking and horizontal drilling) that from force-feeding of ethanol to American consumers.

Via AEI