continued to be a net importer of crude oil, specifically, as it has been since the 1940s.

exported about 635,000 barrels per day more than it imported from other countries, “making the United States a net annual petroleum exporter for the first time since at least 1949,” the EIA has said. Trump also may have been thinking of net petroleum exports, since he mentioned oil multiple times in the Fox Business interview. also produced more total energy than it consumed under Trump in 20. also produced 89.0 quadrillion BTUs of energy, slightly more than the 88.5 quadrillion BTUs of energy it consumed. also was on its way to being a net exporter of energy last year - and, thus, by that definition, “energy independent.”Īll forms of energy combined, the country exported 23.0 quadrillion British thermal units of energy in that time span, which was more than the 19.6 quadrillion BTUs of energy it imported, according to the EIA’s latest monthly figures. Energy Information Administration.īut through the first 11 months of 2021, the U.S. exports of primary energy did exceed its energy imports from foreign sources under Trump in 20 - the first times that had happened since 1952, according to the U.S. The former president presumably meant to refer to net energy exports during his administration. The country has been supplying international markets with various forms of energy for decades. was “exporting energy for the first time ever in the history of our country” when he was president, that’s false. Photo by Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images.Īs for Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. It allows for a “45-day wind-down period” for orders already under contract, according to a senior administration official.įreight train with oil tankers at dusk in Texas. purchases of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden signed an executive order on March 8 blocking new U.S. imports of petroleum in 2020 and 7.9% of those imports in 2021. For instance, Russia accounted for 7% of total U.S. was buying oil from Russia in 2020, and for many years before.

By the time he left office in January 2021, the price was already up to $2.38 a gallon.Īlso, the U.S.

Notably, the price of gasoline actually has been rising fairly consistently since the end of April 2020, when it was selling for $1.77 a gallon, the lowest weekly price under Trump. Trump is one of several Republican politicians to claim or suggest that Biden ended the “energy independence” America needs to stop relying on Russia for oil, as well as to combat rising gasoline prices, which reached an average weekly price of $4.10 for a gallon of regular gas on March 7.

(He made a related claim about energy in his keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.) He added, “We were exporting energy for the first time ever in the history of our country,” falsely implying that that had never happened before and had ceased since he left office. “We were energy independent one year ago,” Trump said in a March 2 interview on Fox Business, in which he criticized Biden for not mentioning what is happening with oil in his State of the Union address, for example. was still “energy independent” in 2021 under President Joe Biden - contrary to claims made by Republicans who have suggested otherwise. However, by any of those definitions, the U.S. Instead, those who tout this so-called “energy independence” may be referring to the fact that, on net, the country either produced more energy than it consumed, exported more energy than it imported, or, more specifically, had a greater number of exports than imports of petroleum, which includes crude oil and refined products from crude oil, such as gasoline and various fuels. relies only on the energy it produces is not likely to happen anytime soon. And to some energy analysts, a scenario in which the U.S. has imported oil and other forms of energy from abroad, including from Russia, for many years. The country still relied on foreign sources of energy, including oil. When politicians say that the United States was “energy independent” under former President Donald Trump, some people may get the false impression that the U.S.

America net exporter of oil