Where do we get our oil?
Posted by Moonage on 10 Feb 2006 | Tagged as: Oil Policy
A lot has been made of Bush selling out to the Saudis. A lot has been made of our addiction to Middle East oil. Those are just assumptions people take for granted when they address the issue of dealing with oil policy within the US. Problem is, there’s not a lot supporting either assumption. From the most recent census data:
Out Top Trading partners are:
| Export | Import | ||
| 1 | Canada | 211.3 | 287.9 |
| 2 | Mexico | 120 | 170.2 |
| 3 | China | 41.8 | 243.5 |
| 4 | Japan | 55.4 | 138.1 |
| 5 | Germany | 34.1 | 84.8 |
| 6 | UK | 38.6 | 51.1 |
| 7 | South Korea | 27.7 | 43.8 |
| 8 | Taiwan | 22 | 34.8 |
| 9 | France | 22.4 | 33.8 |
| 10 | Malaysia | 10.5 | 33.7 |
| 11 | Italy | 11.5 | 31 |
| 12 | Netherlands | 26.5 | 14.9 |
| 13 | Venezuela | 6.4 | 34 |
| 14 | Brazil | 15.3 | 24.4 |
| 15 | Ireland | 9.3 | 28.6 |
I have highlighted the the Middle East oil countries for you on that list.
Our top Importers are:
| 1 | Canada | 287.9 | 17.20% |
| 2 | China | 243.5 | 14.60% |
| 3 | Mexico | 170.2 | 10.20% |
| 4 | Japan | 138.1 | 8.30% |
| 5 | Germany | 84.8 | 5.10% |
| 6 | UK | 51.1 | 3.10% |
| 7 | South Korea | 43.8 | 2.60% |
| 8 | Taiwan | 34.8 | 2.10% |
| 9 | Venezuela | 34 | 2.00% |
| 10 | France | 33.8 | 2.00% |
| 11 | Malaysia | 33.7 | 2.00% |
| 12 | Italy | 31 | 1.90% |
| 13 | Ireland | 28.6 | 1.70% |
| 14 | Saudi Arabia | 27.2 | 1.60% |
| 15 | Brazil | 24.4 | 1.50% |
Look at that total, folks. Saudi Arabia nets a big 1.6%. As much as people bitch and moan about Bush selling out to the Saudis, it just ain’t happenin. IF we put the hammer on crude, we’re hurting Canada and Mexico a LOT more than we are the Middle East. Does anyone ever consider that?
Doesn’t matter much to me. Our dependence on oil is the problem. Who we depend on has fluxed, but invariably created issues. People want to isolate us from Mexico by building a wall and having vigilantes patrol the border. Have they considered the repercussions of pissing off our #3 importer and I believe our #2 importer of oil?
If we didn’t have that dependence, we wouldn’t have to worry about that now would we? Quit worrying about "who", let’s just worry about "how". As in, how we can create our own energy.
- Technorati oil policy
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