Breaking: America Still a Huge Importer of Energy

The Wall Street Journal reports exciting news:

U.S. exports of gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels are soaring, putting the nation on track to be a net exporter of petroleum products in 2011 for the first time in 62 years.

….That the U.S. is shipping out more fuel than it brings in is significant because the nation has for decades been a voracious energy consumer. It took in huge quantities of not only crude oil from the Middle East but also refined fuels from Europe, Latin America and elsewhere to help run its factories and cars.

….”It looks like a trend that could stay in place for the rest of the decade,” said Dave Ernsberger, global director of oil at Platts, which tracks energy markets. “The conventional wisdom is that U.S. is this giant black hole sucking in energy from around the world. This changes that dynamic.”

Before you get too excited about this, you should know that it’s completely ridiculous. It’s true that the United States has recently been importing lower volumes of refined petroleum products and exporting higher volumes. It’s even true that shale oil and fracking have increased U.S. production of crude oil and gas in recent years, and that, combined with the Great Recession, means that net imports of all petroleum products have declined sinced 2005. Nonetheless, as the EIA chart below shows, when you add up both crude oil and refined products, the United States continues to import a net of 9.4 million barrels per day. That’s 3.4 billion barrels per year.

You’d only know this if you read the Journal article pretty carefully (it’s a single sentence in the 7th paragraph) but the United States is still a giant black hole sucking in energy from around the world. What’s more, that dynamic is not going to change anytime soon. Sorry to be such a killjoy.