A Look at US Oil Consumption

Today I would like to have a look at the history of US oil consumption and use. It is interesting what has happened as recently as the year 1990. First, here is a graph of total US oil consumption, production and imports:


This is a pretty nifty chart that shows our increasing use of oil, basically quadrupling since 1950, as well as the US production numbers versus the import figures. According to the chart, around 1965 or so, the US needed to import about 25% of the total oil needed per year. Zooming up to the year 2007, we can see that the numbers have been reversed and that we need to import fully 75% of our oil needed every year. Here is another graph that just shows the crude oil imports:


This is a disturbing image showing the linear rise in imports ever since 1984. Obviously, this trend has got to cease and one of the best ways I know is to end our dependence on gasoline fired internal combustion engines. Roughly 15 million barrels of oil DAILY could be saved if our entire fleet ran independent of gasoline. We could almost live on US oil production alone if our vehicles ran on electricity or natural gas or ethanol or bio-diesel. Think about it.