Although most Americans don't know it, the U.S. gets more oil from Canada than it does from the entire Middle East.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
We get more oil from Canada than any country.
The U.S. now imports over half of its oil supply from the Middle East. This dangerous dependence on foreign energy sources is an issue of national security.
There's no question that tar sands in Canada are probably the largest source of oil available to the U.S. over a long period of time. There's as much oil in the tar sands probably as there is in Saudi Arabia. The problem is, there's a huge capital requirement to develop that.
More customers for Canadian oil means that Canadian producers can charge more for their oil, which then means that American businesses and consumers will pay more for oil.
It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas.
And almost half of American oil consumption is for motor vehicles.
We already get more energy from Canada than from any other foreign country.
Over the last two decades, America has increased its demand for oil by nearly 30 percent, yet we have not expanded our ability to produce domestic sources of fuel.
The confusing thing, I thought, was that most of America already knew that we were overly reliant on oil, especially on foreign oil. But it was news that this administration had begun to at least acknowledge that problem.
Right now, there are a limited number of customers for Canadian oil. Due to simple geography - and without the pipeline - it's really only cost effective for Canadian oil producers to sell their oil to North American customers, mostly American Midwesterners.