Markey to Bush: Keep Our Oil At Home
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Eben Burnham-Snyder, Select Committee, 202-225-4081
Markey to Bush: Keep Our Oil At Home
U.S. Exporting 9 Times More than Potential Offshore Resources
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.
“This is yet more proof that there are countless efforts America could make to increase our energy independence that dwarf any results from offshore drilling,” continued Markey. “We should be stopping oil exports and increasing the production of renewable energy and plug-in hybrid vehicles, not depend on Big Oil’s offshore drilling pipeline dream.”
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The letter is available on the Select Committee’s website HERE
The Select Committee was active during the 110th and 111th Congresses. This is an archived version of the website, to ensure that the public has ongoing access to the Select Committee record. This website, including external links, will not be updated after Jan. 3rd, 2010.
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