The New York Times reported Thursday (see full text here):
Taken together, increasing [domestic] production and declining consumption have unexpectedly brought the United States markedly closer to a goal that has tantalized presidents since Richard Nixon: independence from foreign energy sources, a milestone that could reconfigure American foreign policy, the economy and more.
In 2011, the country imported just 45 percent of the liquid fuels it used, down from a record high of 60 percent in 2005.
“There is no question that many national security policy makers will believe they have much more flexibility and will think about the world differently if the United States is importing a lot less oil,” saysMichael A. Levi, an energy and environmental senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“For decades, consumption rose, production fell and imports increased, and now every one of those trends is going the other way.”
