Saturday, April 11, 2015

America's Oil Dependence, a Real Problem.



Working on my Junior Theme, I've come across the problem of America's oil dependence. And I wondered, is it as bad as everyone makes it seem? According to the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) the US imported about 40% of its oil in 2012. 50% of the imported oil came from the Western Hemisphere (most from Canada). Around 30% of the oil came from Arab countries. It also claims that US oil dependence has declined since 2005, although it did not state how much our imports declined by.

Another source I found on the matter is from the Sierra Club, a environmental organization founded in 1892. The Sierra Club states that 68% of our imported oil comes from countries deemed "high risk" for instability. As a result the US is pulled into overseas conflicts over oil. This dependence on foreign oil, they claim, is that Americans lose jobs, as those jobs are moved overseas to support our need for foreign oil. This leads to economic stability making it a huge risk for America to become dependent on foreign oil.

So which is it? Is it 30% imported from the Middle East of 68%? Both sources definitely have some bias, the government wants to keep the numbers low to make Americans more comfortable with the amount of oil we're importing. But on the other hand, the Sierra Club wants to make the number seem higher to get Americans to petition the government for less dependence on foreign oil.

It is interesting to see the contrasts between what a government agency claims, and what an environmental organization claims. In my research it will be crucial to sort through these difference and try and uncover the truth. One way to figure out which is closer to the truth is to find a third maybe even fourth source, to try and corroborate the data and come to a conclusion then.

How do you think the government uses wording to twist and alter statistics?

1 comment:

  1. Joesh, Fine job blogging overall this term, with a strong late finish. This post brings up an interesting topic and I like your discovery of two apparently contradictory figures. But, which one do you trust more? You tell us some ways the truth might be sought, but you don't actually follow them, do you?

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