US Energy Independence
Given the need to isolate Russia, a major exporter of fossil fuels, let’s take a look at US production of fossil fuels in recent decades. The big picture: through three presidential adminstrations, we’ve been producing a lot of it.
Petroleum
1) Under Bush, Obama, and Trump, US production of oil skyrocketed. Oil production increased by almost 80% under Obama despite his efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcrfpus1&f=a
2) What about Biden? Oil production dropped in 2020 (under Trump) due to Covid, and slowly rose in 2021 under Biden.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/crude-oil-production
(I believe the 1st graph is thousands of barrels (bbl) per year and 2nd is thousands per day).
3) There’s been some loose talk about “energy independence.” That’s hard to define, since the US both imports and exports oil and other sources of energy. But as oil production rose under Bush, Obama, and Trump, net oil imports decreased under all three. That drop ended in late 2019. The Jan to Nov 2021 average is about 100 thousand bbl/day, or less than 1% of the level in 2006 before the big decline. In other words, net imports (imports minus exports) have been about 0, give or take some small fluctuations, since 2020, despite the fact that the economy is growing since the Covid economic crash.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTNTUS2&f=M
4) Oil imports have not changed much since 2015, when they were about 9000 thousand bbl/day. Net imports declined because exports increased. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=49596.
5) Canada is by far the biggest source of US petroleum imports. As of 2019 (latest figures I could find), Russia was 7%.
(Data from https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/imports-and-exports.php)
Natural Gas
1) Methane (CH4, “natural gas”) follows a similar pattern to petroleum, with big increases since the Bush years, interrupted with a small drop in 2020 due to Covid.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9070us2A.htm.
2) Production increases led to a decline in net imports every year since 2007, with imports less than exports since 2017.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/natural-gas/imports-and-exports.php
3) Most US natural gas trade is within North America.
98% of natural gas imports are from Canada.
55% of natural gas exports are to Canada and Mexico through pipelines.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/natural-gas/imports-and-exports.php
4) To transport natural gas large distances without a pipeline, you have to cool it till it becomes a liquid. US liquified natural gas (LNG) exports rose quite a bit in 2021. LNG exports to Europe increased slightly in 2021 and are now bigger than Russia’s.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48876
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=51358
Conclusion
If someone makes a claim about US “energy independence” under Biden, keep in mind the context: big increases in production and export of both oil and gas over the last decade that has made the US practically self-sufficient in these two fuels. That’s been about the same under Biden as well.
Update, 6/6/2022
Here is recent official Energy Information Agency statistics on natural gas, showing continued increases since 2020.
