The data analysis arm of the US Department of Energy is forecasting that despite low oil prices, the US will become energy independent within a decade. That result depends on frugality as much as resource abundance, and it includes substantial volumes of energy trade with the rest of the world. The US Energy Information Administration’s latest Annual Energy Outlook features the key finding that the US is on track to reduce its net energy imports to essentially zero by 2030, if not sooner. That might seem surprising, in light of the recent collapse of oil prices and the resulting significant slowdown in drilling . EIA has covered that base, as well, in a side-case in which oil prices remain under $80 per barrel through 2040, and net imports bottom out at around 5% of total energy demand. Either way, this is as close to true US energy independence as I […]