Increasing USA Foreign Oil Dependence In The Last 40 years

In his presentation Mike Milken explores foreign oil dependence for the USA and presidential statements:

President Richard Nixon (in 1974 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources): “At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need.”

President Gerald Ford (in 1975 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources): “We must reduce oil imports by one million barrels per day by the end of this year and by two million barrels per day by the end of 1977.”

President Jimmy Carter (1979, 40.5%): “Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 – never.”

President Ronald Reagan (1981, 43.6%): “While conservation is worthy in itself, the best answer is to try to make us independent of outside sources to the greatest extent possible for our energy.”

President George Bush (1992, 47.2%): “When our administration developed our national energy strategy, three principles guided our policy: reducing our dependence on foreign oil…”

President Bill Clinton (1995, 49.8%): “The nation’s growing reliance on imports of oil… threatens the nation’s security… [we] will continue efforts to…enhance domestic energy production.”

President George W. Bush (2006, 65.5%): “Breakthroughs…will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.”

President Barack Obama (2009, 66.2%) “It will be the policy of my administration to reverse our dependence on foreign oil while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs.”

See slides.

Related: Oil Consumption by Country in 2007 – Google’s Energy Interests – South Korea To Invest $22 Billion in Overseas Energy Projects