Source 22: graph of US oil imports

Top 10 US crude oil imports by origin (dollardaze.org, 6/2/07)

Summary:

This is a graph of the top 10 countries that the US imports its oil from and the percentages that each country makes up with regards to the overall oil imports for the US.

Topic:

Should the Obama administration allocate large amounts of money ($150 billion) in this time of economic crisis to alternative energy sources?

Category:

Institution- government chart

What is it?

This is a chart that shows the amount of oil imported by the US from the top 10 countries that it gets its oil from.  The chart was found on dollardaze.org, but the chart is from the Energy Information Administration.

Author:

EnergyInformation Administration

accessed:

2/26/09

Support:

This is a graph compiled by the Energy Information Administration.  In it we can see the top 10 countries that the US imports its oil from.  From the chart we can see that Canada is the number one country with Mexico and Saudi Arabia in second and third.  It also shows the percentage that each country makes up of the US’s overall oil imports.

Audience and Agenda:

The EIA is a US government organization that provides statistics that were compiled by the United States government about all issues pertaining to energy.  EIA.doe.gov gets approximately 409, 000 hits per month.  The administration is a government institution so it is funded by tax payers through the Department of Energy. 

Usefulness:

This chart shows the percentages that each of the countries make up of the overall imports of foreign oil to the US.  It can be used to show that most of the main countries that the US imports oil from are not hostile countries.  From this chart we can see that of the top five countries that the US gets its oil from only two are hostile countries making up only about 20% of overall imports.  This could make the argument that it could be quite realistic to cut these countries out as trading partners by increasing the use of alternative energy sources or increasing production of domestic oil.  It also makes the case that the US is not supporting its enemies as much as the general public might think through the import of oil from hostile countries.  This makes the national security argument in favor of alternative energy sources a very revelvant one in that the goal to stop importing oil from hostile countries could be reached quicker than perhaps otherwise thought with increased government investment in alternative energy sources.  The money that alternative energy could save from being exported overseas to hostile countries could be used to pay for the initial investment that the government made in alternative energy.  In essence it could pay for itself.  This would also keep the money free to be invested in the US economy through the promotion of manufacturing alternative energy products.

Works Cited:

EIA.doe.gov demographics:

http://www.quantcast.com/eia.doe.gov#

Official website of EIA:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/