Central Georgia News

As the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports the United States’ daily crude oil imports reached the lowest amount since 1991 in 2020, the last year saw a net increase in foreign crude oil imports, reversing the downward trend.

While 2020 marked the continuation of a three-year decline, in 2021, the U.S. only imported about 8% of oil from Russia, the EIA reports. 

“I think we need to be moving away from an economy that’s based on fossil fuels, that’s the way of the past and we need to be moving toward the future,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said in an interview during his 2020 campaign.

Warnock is among Senate Democrats who voted to block the Keystone XL Pipeline extension in February 2021.

According to the EIA, national gas prices were $2.33 per gallon when President Joe Biden and Warnock took office in January 2021, though they have been steadily rising since mid-2020.

The year prior, in 2019, the U.S. became a net total energy exporter for the first time since 1952, EIA reports. The country maintained that position in 2020.

The U.S. is not energy independent. 

"We consume roughly 20 million barrels of crude oil each day," economist Edward Hirs told Houston Public Media in January 2020. "We only produce about 12.5 million barrels of crude oil each day."

Restoration PAC launched a TV ad recently, highlighting Democrats’ positions on domestic energy production, alleging these have contributed heavily to skyrocketing gas prices throughout the state of Georgia and the rest of the country.

The ad highlights supporters of Biden’s energy policies.

"American energy production kept gas prices down," the ad states. "More and more, we are going overseas for oil that is right under our feet. That’s the Democrat green energy plan. High gas prices? Joe Biden did that. And with his support for Biden’s policies, Raphael Warnock did that, too."