WASHINGTON, D.C. (MCT) — Against the backdrop of gasoline prices rising at the pump in an election year, a new Obama administration report cites “significant progress” in reducing foreign oil imports and increasing domestic oil and gas production. But independent analysts attribute much of the fall in oil imports to slack U.S. demand in a still-anemic economy. And to a certain degree, the boost in domestic oil and gas production is the result of decisions energy companies made during the George W. Bush administration to develop key reservoirs.
GOP candidates on the cam- paign trail and some oil industry leaders have charged that Obama’s energy policies stifle domestic production and have urged the administration to open as much public land and offshore areas as possible to drilling.
More domestic drilling will not end the need for imports, however. The United States holds only two percent of the planet’s proven oil reserves, but Americans consume 25 percent of the world’s daily output of crude oil.
