America has Finally Achieved Energy Independence: if the Government Acts, it Could Become a Major Clean Energy Exporter

     America has talked about energy independence for decades and, since 2007, inched ever closer. Under President Biden, it finally happened. In 2021, the United States produced more oil than it consumed, and higher prices for gas did not, as pundits claimed, impact this. Trump warned that the United States would "lose its energy independence" and false claims arose in May 2021 that the U.S. was no longer energy independent, with some outright lying and saying that the United States was energy independent during the Trump administration: it was not. In 2020, the U.S. did finally produce more oil than it consumed, but only because of the sharp decline in oil consumption. In 2021, the United States produced an average of 300,000 more barrels of oil a day than it consumed even as travel returned to pre-pandemic levels.

     Even better news is that the United States is not reliant on oil from the Middle East. In 2021, 51 percent of oil that was imported came from Canada, compared to just eight percent from the Persian Gulf region. In 2008, the latter made up over 30 percent of U.S. oil imports: this represents a 75 percent decline in 15 years. The United States should seize on this momentum: energy independence was signed into law in 2007: the United States should seek to phase out all oil imports from the Persian Gulf by 2032 and oil imports as a whole by 2047.

     This can be replaced by clean energy, the current surge in oil and gas leasing to bail out Europe from Vladimir Putin's aggression excluded. On February 22nd, President Biden announced tens of billions of dollars in investments to strengthen America's domestic supply of minerals to create solar panels, electric vehicles, and other key facets of a clean energy future. Coal is dying while Biden approves massive wind and solar projects along America's coasts and, to a lesser extent, on land. At the current rate, America can phase out coal by 2035 and should seek to phase out natural gas and oil by 2050 as part of a larger effort to achieve carbon neutrality.

     No, electric cars do not leave America vulnerable to China and other nations: 90 percent of American lithium imports come from Argentina and Chile. Congress needs to act now: the Build Back Better Act, and, to a lesser extent, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, include hundreds of billions of dollars to bolster the mining and manufacturing of clean energy sources, from wind turbines to electric vehicles, right here in the United States. If Congress passes the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, a $100 billion manufacturing bill loaded with clean energy benefits, and the Build Back Better Act, America can not only achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, but make it a multi-trillion dollar industry to help other nations do the same.