Markey to Bush: Keep Our Oil At Home ~ U.S. Exporting 9 Times More than Potential Offshore Resources

[mzmolly]

WASHINGTON (August 19, 2008) – Even as calls to open up large swaths of America’s offshore areas to oil drilling continue, America is setting new records for exports of domestically produced oil and petroleum products. Today Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, sent a letter to the president asking him to explore stopping the exports of U.S. oil to foreign nations.

“Mr. President, keep our oil at home. While American families have been shelling out big bucks at the pump, we’ve been shipping American oil and petroleum products abroad to places like China, Singapore and Venezuela,” said Markey. “If we want to help America become energy independent, we should first look to American oil being shipped to foreign countries.”

According to the letter, the United States’ record export levels this year amounts to nearly 10 percent of all the oil the United States consumes every day. U.S. oil exports increased to 1.806 million barrels a day in May 2008 -- the most recent month for which data is available -- from last year’s average export level of 1.433 million barrels a day of oil and petroleum products. In addition, the United States reached the highest level of oil exports in our nation’s history in February of this year.

These oil exports far exceed projections for oil from offshore drilling. The letter notes that projections from the Department of Energy for offshore drilling say that “at the height of production, in 2030, increased offshore drilling would produce only 200,000 barrels per day – one ninth the amount of oil we currently send to foreign countries every day.” The letter also notes that, at the current export rate, by the time the first barrel of oil could be produced from increased offshore drilling, America would have already exported the equivalent of nearly 40 percent of the oil that is projected to lie beneath protected areas offshore.

Edited to add http://globalwarming.house.gov/mediacenter/pressreleases_2008?id=0033#main_content">LINK

[msongs]

1. boy there's some ads waiting on this topic to use against repubs/bush/mccain

repubs n mccain exporting 10% of our oil? do they hate America?

Msongs

[mzmolly]

2. I agree we do need to hit on this.

:hi:

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. Gee, there's a shocker! NOT!

[Canuckistanian]

4. Obama should pick this up and run with it

Along with about a dozen OTHER big lies.

[Lugnut]

5. Where's the MSM on this info?

Drill baby drill, my arse.

[MJJP21]

6. Facts

The fact of the matter is this: Any oil we produce in this country is done so by multinational companies. The oil goes into the pot for distribution to whereever it earns the most money. The only way to keep US oil here is to nationalize the oil fields and that ain't gonna happen.It is just as ridiculus to try to make only the US energy independent while ignoring the rest of the world. We really need to pull together to find a solution to the "worlds" energy problem once and for all. Drill, Drill, Drill, doesn't get us out of this problem. It only keeps us snoozing until we can't wake up anymore.