Energy independence

Whoever supplied you with this information has cherry picked the data.  I would suggest that you take 120 seconds of your valuable time to look at all of the data from the last 15 years.  The truth and ALL of the truth.

I suggest Googling "US oil purchases from Russia by year".

Often when I read an article with info that looks too good to be true or too bad to be true, I do some research............as I did in this case.

The key piece of info, which seems to get lost in the shuffle, is that we buy fossil fuels from Russia because they're cheaper than available domestic production. Europe, in SHARP contrast, would struggle mightily without Russian sources for those fuels.

If we were either unable or unwilling to purchase Russian fossil fuels, we could ramp up domestic production. We'd probably experience higher costs and prices, but even that isn't an absolute given. And...if I need to say it again...in the medium term, we can wean ourselves off fossil fuels, to a large extent at the very least, by switching power generation and automotive fuels over to sustainable sources/electricity.

In a way, telling Russia "nyet" would be good for the country. It would essentially force us to accelerate our development of sustainable energy sources. I for one, looking at gas prices closing in on $5 a gallon (and with no guarantee that they're going to level off any time soon), will welcome the advent of all-EV auto manufacture. Yes, yes, obviously, you don't get to operate an electric car for free. But it's one HELL of a lot cheaper than an equivalent combustion-engine car. I have two friends who own a Chevy Volt. They pay about $4 to juice them up, and they get to go more miles than I get to for my $55 tank of gas.

Boilerman, you're right. I did CHERRY PICK!!!

First I CHERRY PICKED the US Energy Information Agency!

Then I CHERRY PICKED their Petroleum & Other Liquids section.

Then I CHERRY PICKED Weekly U.S Import from Russia of Crude Oil section

Then I CHERRY PICKED about the last 6 years of the Obama Administration. Total Russian oil imports: ZERO. And it stayed that way for about the first 3 1/2 years of Trump.

Then I CHERRY PICKED the last four months of Trump: 907,000 barrels per day = over 108 million barrels in four months. Compared with Obama's zero barrels over 6 years.

Source: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W_EPC0_IM0_NUS-NRS_MBBLD&f=W

You're still cherry picking.  Here is reality.

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTIM_NUS-NRS_1&f=M

We buy crude from Russia because we specifically need sour crude.  Russia produces sour crude.  Venezuala also produces sour crude.  The Saudi's and all Mid East countries produce mostly sweet crude, and most new US domestic sources of oil are sweet.

Here is a video of Obama, and most everything he said is now proven wrong.  We would be getting 5% MORE of our daily crude oil needs from Cananda if Obama had not stopped this project.  This is exactly the grade of crude that we are in great need of.  Now Biden and friends are putting up roadblocks to limit and stop US drilling.  Get politicians out of the way, and America will do some quick debottlenecking which will increase production somewhat in the short run, and drilling will begin drilling today in a huge way, so we won't be in this situation down the road.  Fracking is the fastest way to increase oil and gas production in the short run.

Plus, finish the fucking pipeline.  It would bring sour crude to the US, and it would take sweet crude to the gulf for export.

As I said above, the Biden administration has issued more drilling permits than the Trump administration did in four years. So bleating about drilling is nonsensical. The current state of production is due to the choices made by the fossil fuel companies. It isn't a supply problem. It's a market manipulation scheme by the American oil cartel.

Not sure whom to believe here, alot of strong contradictions, I do see truth on both sides.  I retired from an energy company, ( ended my career on the petrochemical side, midstream).  For what it's worth,  my observations of 26 years are this.  OSHA and the EPA over regulate the energy industry.  Safety was beat into our heads until our ears bled.  It created a whole cottage industry.  Granted, OSHA  has saved countless lives through their efforts and should be applauded.  I'm going a little off track here,  in short, oil companies are compliant with the regulations and are good stewards of the enviroment and the well being of their employees.

Regulations adds to the costs which are passed on to the consumers.  Biden seems to look at things as a binary choice, stop or go, no inbetween.  Afghanistan withdrawal was an example of this.  In my opinion, stopping the Keystone pipeline was a mistake.  Choosing to limit exploration and production on goverment land is a mistake.  Common sense needs to prevail.  Let's use all energy sources, renewables and hydrocarbon, especially now with the conflict with Russia.  Stop purchasing oil from Russia.   On the other side, after four years of Trump, the enviroment has suffered greatly, Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA was a disaster, all he did was roll back enviormental protections.  Biden's energy policies are hurting the democrats chances of winning elections and we'll suffer more harm to the enviroment with the GOP in charge.

  If you are expecting "common sense" from brain dead Biden and the DemocRats, then you show a lack of "common sense".

Well, it does seem contradictory that OSHA/EPA "over regulated" the industry, yet--"saved countless lives." What you don't see is all the people who didn't sicken and/or die because of stringent pollution controls that have been in place for decades. That's a benefit that's been largely invisible to most people, as is just about any prevention effort in just about any context. And I think we can agree that we'd rather have "too much" workplace safety than not enough.

Biden's energy policies are sensible. He wants to move toward renewable energy, which is the future no matter how much Republican politicians in fossil fuel states bleat. I would expect that the current mess shows us exactly why we shouldn't be dependent on fossil fuels. Every time there's a loud fart in an oil-producing region, we freak out. I'd rather live in a society where we don't have to pay attention to whatever crazy person is trying to start a war in Europe or the Middle East. And renewable energy is the way out of that.

When you say that regulations add costs, you're overlooking the fact that a LACK of regulations can be far, far more costly. Those costs manifest themselves in what economists call "negative externalities"--they're costs that aren't borne by the producers of an economic activity. People's lives are shortened, and their quality of life diminished, in polluted environments. Those are real, concrete economic costs--just harder to express in terms of dollars and cents.

I think that the GOP's demonstrated indifference to the environment and its servile worship of the fossil fuel giants hurts them at the ballot box. Maybe not as much as it should, when its orange god babbles nonsense about renewable energy sources and appointed oil industry lackeys to environmental stewardship posts. Clean air and water shouldn't be a partisan issue.

We don't HAVE to buy fossil fuels from Russia--the American oil cartel has CHOSEN to do so. And the pipeline kerfuffle is silly, because a pipeline doesn't increase the supply of fuel any more than damming a river increases the amount of water flowing in it. Fossil fuels are already obsolete, so we shouldn't be ramping up their production, except in the very short term. But we have too many politicians who are paid employees of the fossil fuel industry--fossils themselves.

And as I said, the Biden administration has instructed the government officials who approve oil drilling to put road blocks up at every chance.  Obama did the same thing..................my buddy dealt with it on offshore projects for years.