Their policies weren’t responsible for the underlying plunge in our crude oil imports, which is the primary factor in our march to energy independence. To be clear, I am not giving credit (or blame) here to President Obama or President Trump.
In May 2020, we had flipped back to a net oil importer, and we have oscillated since. The energy independence that we gained in 2019, was lost in the second half of 2020 as energy production plunged, but energy demand recovered. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the trend. Note near the end of the chart above that we started oscillating back and forth between a net importer and a net exporter.
US Net Imports of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products Energy Information Administration All President Trump (and President Obama before him) had to do was avoid driving the bus into the ditch, and they would continue to benefit from the hydraulic fracking boom that enabled all of this. Most of that march to energy independence happened under President Obama. It is also true that Donald Trump was president when this happened for the first time in October 2019.īut note that this was the culmination of a trend that started in 2006 when U.S. By that metric, we became energy independent (at last as far as our oil consumption goes). It is true that in 2019 our net imports of crude oil and finished products flipped from positive to negative. (In reality, we are always partially dependent, because even when our exports exceed our imports, we are still importing oil from other countries). When they see our net exports are positive, it is viewed as “energy independence.” When they turn negative, we are once again partially dependent. Most people view energy independence through the lens of our oil and gas production and consumption. Why do I say “net”? Because if we import a million barrels per day of oil, and export that as roughly a million barrels per day of finished products, it doesn’t actually impact our energy independence - even though it increases our gross overall consumption.
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