October's Energy Report Card

When it comes to America’s Energy Report Card, October was a mixed bag.

The big news is that the United States produced more of its own oil here at home than we imported from other countries. That’s not good news. That’s great news. The last time this occurred was during Bill Clinton’s first term in office back in February 1995.

But the bad news is we still imported 300 million barrels of petroleum in October at an average price of $109 per barrel. That means roughly $32.7 billion that could have been put to use here in our economy – creating jobs, spurring growth, and financing research and design – was shipped overseas. All told we are on track to spend $400 billion on imported oil in 2013.

And the biggest chunk of that goes to OPEC countries. The most recent figures on our OPEC imports date back to August when we imported 121 million barrels of petroleum from OPEC at a coast of $13.5 billion.

Isn’t it time America got the energy plan it deserves?