Having competition is a good thing and exploring the frozen tundra in ANWR is good for the US regardless of dependency, just as oil reserves off the Florida, Georgia and/or California coast would be good for us.
But refining the product is really where the bottleneck for US supply has been for some time. To put this into perspective:
Number of refineries in the US (total, 1982) – 263
Number of refineries in the US (total, 2002) – 159
Lest you think I’m not looking at capacity (which is where the real problems exists).
Crude Oil Capacity (barrels per day, 1982) – 17,618,872
Crude Oil Capacity (barrels per day, 2002) – 17,177,371
So, what we can easily see is that regardless of the amount of oil available, our ability to refine it and transport it to customers has diminished. Those who control the refineries actually can do as much to help or hinder prices as the producers of oil. Documentation for the aforementioned is here.
Previous administrations, from both parties, have forbidden new capacity in our refineries through lack of an integrated energy policy.
