US spent nearly $25bn on imported oil in September

13 October 2009

In his tenth consecutive monthly update on the level of foreign oil imports, energy expert T Boone Pickens warned that US dependence on foreign oil shows no signs of diminishing and remains the country’s top national security threat.

Pickens said that based on the latest figures from the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US imported 63 per cent of its oil, or 357 million barrels in September 2009, sending approximately $25bn overseas to foreign governments.

‘Continuously importing 60-70 percent of our oil each month is a major national security risk,’ said Pickens.‘On an annualised basis, we’re sending almost a quarter of a trillion dollars to help the economies of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Venezuela instead of sending it to the economies of our own states abundant in natural gas-the only immediately available domestic fuel alternative. Americans can’t afford to be distracted by falling gasoline prices.’

Since January 2009, the US has imported more than 3.3 billion barrels of oil.

Unveiled in July 2008, the Pickens Plan is a solution for ending the US’ growing dependence on foreign oil. The plan calls for expanding the use of domestic renewable resources, such as wind and solar, in power generation and using supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel, replacing more than one-third of imported oil.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: natural gas, policy, solar, wind

This story was published on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Features, North America, energy efficiency. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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