Policies to Address the problem of U.S. oil dependency Research Paper

Policies to Address the problem of U.S. oil dependency - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that more than 150 years after the beginning of U.S. petroleum industry (since 1859), oil still is considered as the most strategic commodity. Given the limited capacity of oil reserves in the world and ever-increasing global demand for it, in recent decades oil has played a significant role in foreign policies of nations, especially those of great powers. Not surprisingly, oil has been an important factor in shaping bloody and costly conflicts, particularly since the World War II.   During the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, America was able to meet the country’s basic needs in the energy sector primarily by using its own oil reserves. However, by the end of the 1940s, â€Å"the United States began to rely on foreign oil to satisfy rising energy demand, and the proportion of imports has been rising more or less steadily ever since†. Today, according to U.S. Energy Information Administ ration (EIA), the United States is the largest oil consumer and consumes near 22% of the total production of oil in the world. That is equivalent to something about 18,771,000 barrels per day, of which about 9.7 million barrels (51%) are imported (on a net basis) from foreign countries. However, this dependency on oil is very costly and also is tightly linked to our national security due to both potential economic and political threats related to it.