America Needs an Oil Change

“America is addicted to oil.” So said President Bush in this year’s State of the Union. Nice line! Is it true?

Since 1980, the U.S. economy has more than doubled its output, adjusted for inflation.

Over the same period in which the U.S. economy was growing by more than 100%, America’s use of petroleum has risen by some 17%. Does that sound like an addiction to you?

By comparison, the use of renewables other than hydropower has increased by 23% since 1980, coal use has increased by about 50% and the use of nuclear power has increased by 200%. (All statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Agency, www.eia.doe.gov)

More striking still: As late as 1995, the United States was using virtually no more petroleum than it had 15 years before. And since 2004, oil consumption in the U.S. has flattened out again. In other words, almost all of the net increase in the use of oil in the United States during the past quarter-century occurred in just nine years, 1995-2004.

American Enterprise Institute