American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

I blogged recently about the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 that was passed by the House of Representatives and is scheduled for a Senate vote in the near future.

Since the bill was passed T. Boone Pickens issued a statement supporting the bill and its objective of increasing the use of renewables for power generation, but emphasizing the importance of the security aspect of the bill, which is reducing the US dependence on foreign oil.  This is the objective of the Pickens Plan which he started in July of last year.   Its objective is to replace foreign oil/diesel/gasoline with domestic fuels such as wind and natural gas.  The US is dependent on foreign sources for 70% of its petroleum.  According to the EIA, total crude oil imports averaged 9.276 million barrels per day in April. In that month the largest sources of crude oil imports, in order of volume, were Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, Angola, Algeria, Russia, and Columbia.  Altogether these ten countries contributed about 80% of US oil imports in April.  The top five countries contributed 59% of oil imports.