American-made energy. With the Energy Information Administration projecting that the United States will need more than 16 percent additional energy by 2035, the idea that we could, before then, see 100 percent of our liquid fuel needs met domestically and from Canada is huge. Make that gigantic.

Increased access to American energy resources is the key. API’s recent report to the two political parties’ platform committees marks the way – offshore:

• Open the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas exploration and development
• Open the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf
• Open the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf

And onshore:

• Open the 1002 Area within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska
• Open portions of the Rocky Mountains
• Lift New York state’s drilli... more »

Interesting analysis by The Barrel's John Kingston on last week's decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

Kingston writes that the 1 million barrels per day (b/d) to be released from the reserve over a 30-day period is approximately equal to government estimates of the daily yield from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) - if, in fact, the government ever permitted oil and natural gas development there. He asks:

"So the question is if foes of ANWR drilling like President Obama, Sen. Charles Schumer (Democrat-New York) and Rep. Edward Markey (Democrat-Massachusetts) think an SPR release of 1 million b/d is going to impact markets, which they made clear (last week), why have they consistently dismissed the potential market impact of fl... more »

So, just how do we get to energy security - to the point where, by 2030, 92 percent of America's liquid fuel needs is supplied by a combination of U.S. and Canadian sources? Here's how.

Start with where we are now. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States uses slightly more than 19 million barrels per day (mb/d) in liquid fuels - including oil, heating oil, diesel and biofuels. Of that total, 8.5 mb/d (45 percent) comes from U.S. sources, 2.33 mb/d (12 percent) from Canada and 7.2 mb/d (38 percent) from the rest of the world. Biofuels account for about 1 mb/d (5 percent).

With the right policies, by 2030 the U.S. can account for 62 percent of its liquid fuel needs and Canada 16 percent. Add in the EIA's projection that biofuels will grow to 14 percent, a... more »

"Energy security" is something that comes up all the time in Washington policy debates. It means being able to identify reliable, accessible sources of energy that will secure America's economic future as well as our way of life.

You can't really talk about long-range energy policy without clearing that threshold. The good news is energy security isn't complicated or far away. Take a look at this video on the keys to U.S. energy security:

The plan is simple:

A. Access: We can increase U.S. crude oil production by nearly 1 million barrels a day by 2020 and 4 million barrels per day by 2030 by accessing oil and natural gas reserves that are currently off-limits - a small footprint inside the vast Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the outer continental sh... more »