Exporting crude oil and natural gas from the United States are among the dumbest energy ideas of all time. Exporting gas is dumb. Exporting oil is dumber. The U.S. imports almost half of the crude oil that we use. We import 7.5 million barrels per day. The chart below shows the EIA prediction that production will slowly fall and imports will rise ( AEO 2014 ) after 2016. (click image to enlarge) This means that the U.S. will never be self-sufficient in oil. Not even close. What about the tight oil that is produced from shale? That’s included in the chart and is the whole reason that U.S. production has been growing. But there’s not enough of it to keep production growing for long. Here is a chart showing the proven tight oil reserves just published last month by the EIA. (click image to enlarge) Total tight oil […]