The statistics tell the tale...

• The U.S. has only 1.6% of the proven oil reserves in the world.

• Currently, we are producing 11.8% of the world's total oil production.

• We are consuming 25.2% of all the oil currently being produced in the world.

• Without the discovery of new oil reserves within the U.S., we will pump all currently proven U.S. reserves dry in 8 years.

Are there additional oil reserves in the U.S. that can be "proven" and ultimately tapped and consumed? Yes. The oil underneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is one source that is thought to be significant. However, not even considering the political resistance to drilling in the wildlife refuge, experts agree that there is no realistic way to drill and then transport oil from ANWR to ice-free ports in southern Alaska for further transport to refineries quickly enough to avoid the U.S. running out of domestic oil. The second new pipeline being built in Alaska connecting the Arctic with Valdez on Prince William Sound won't be completed for a number of years. Even when completed, the total capacity of the pipelines from the Arctic down to the port of Valdez will have the capacity of less than 10% of total U.S. consumption. The same is generally true of trying to satisfy our needs with new drilling platforms off the coastal U.S. We simply cannot increase production from those sources at a rate that will even keep up with increased U.S. consumption.

Put simply, we are becoming increasingly dependent on the importation of oil from foreign countries to satisfy our growing consumption and there is no way to reverse that trend, regardless of where and how quickly we expand drilling operations.

In the last 40 years our annual consumption of oil has increased by 48%, our annual production of oil had decreased by almost 50%, and the amount of oil we import per year has increased by 833%. For several decades the U.S. has increased the percentage of total world oil production that it consumes. Most experts say it may even be impossoble for the U.S. to reverse that trend. The U.S. cannot drill our way to energy independence regardless of how quickly and how intensively we initiate exploration and drilling programs.