Presidents love to promise energy independence. Former President Donald Trump claimed at a recent rally that the U.S. “was energy independent three years ago” during his administration. President Joe Biden has often invoked the term as well — and his campaign told POLITICO’s E&E News that the U.S. is “closer to energy independence” now than it has been in decades. It’s been the universal, perpetually repeated rallying cry for every president since the 1973 Arab oil embargo. But energy experts caution that while the political slogan may be simple, becoming a truly energy independent country is not, writes Scott Waldman. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, it depends on how you define the term. If energy independence means the country is producing more energy than it consumes, then both leaders have achieved it. While Biden rarely talks up his efforts to produce oil and natural gas, the nation’s output under his leadership continues to smash records. And starting under Trump’s tenure, the U.S. began annually producing “more crude oil than any country, ever,” according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — though even that achievement stemmed from the fracking boom that began during the George W. Bush administration and roared to life under President Barack Obama. Still, the nation has continued to import foreign fuels as well. So if energy independence means no imports, then neither president has done it. According to that definition, the country hasn’t been energy independent for more than 75 years. That’s in part because the oil the U.S. produces isn’t the oil the country’s infrastructure prefers. The nation’s refineries were largely built before the U.S. fracking boom and are designed to process heavier crude oil typically found in Russia and the Middle East. The lighter stuff found in the U.S. is often cheaper to export. And even if a country produces more than it consumes, oil is part of a global market. That means the fuel will still be exposed to international supply and demand disruptions that affect global prices, said Harrison Fell at North Carolina State University. Energy produced from solar rays and wind, however, is not vulnerable to global price shocks. So reducing the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels is a key, and often overlooked, step toward self-sufficiency, Fell said. In that regard, the Biden administration has that to brag about. Biden’s $369 billion climate law has allocated a record amount of funding for expanding the nation’s clean energy infrastructure. Still, clean power is no silver bullet. A flood of Chinese solar power parts is driving down prices and threatening to kneecap domestic manufacturers.
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