You've probably heard the line: The United States holds 2 percent of the world's oil reserves but consumes 25 percent of the world's oil. It's boilerplate rhetoric for folks who'd like Americans to think the United States is both running out of its own oil and using too much of everyone else's. President Obama has used this misleading line in two major policy speeches recently (here and here), and others have followed suit.

Let's focus on the first point. The 2 percent stat lacks context and a false impression results. The figure refers to "proved" reserves - that is, an official classification of oil "that has been discovered (and) is economically and commercially viable," says API's Marcus Koblitz. The McKelvey Diagram below illustrates how narrow the definition is:

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murko... more »

The Hill's Congress Blog: Consumers Dealing with Consequences of Inaction on Energy: We have not done an inventory in decades, which makes current statistics, like the frequently cited one that America only has 3 percent of the world's reserves, at best meaningless if not outright misleading. We didn't know five years ago that we had more natural gas than Saudi Arabia has oil and today we don't know how much oil we really have on and off our shores. The oil that we do know we have is largely under lock and key. The U.S. has vast untapped reserves on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Arctic, but most areas are off-limits for exploration. In a refreshing nod to reality, the House of Representatives passed legislation in recent weeks designed to open some of those a... more »