Oil oil

In 2020 the United States exported about 8.5 million barrels of oil per day and imported about 7.9 million barrels per day thus becoming a net exported for the first time ever. This sort of thing happens with most commodities and the reasons are many. US oil is light and sweet meaning in pollutes the least but many refineries need heavy crude to operate efficiently. Some light is exported and heavy imported. Sometimes it is because of transportation cost. New England uses imported oil because New York refused to allow a pipeline and thus it is less costly to ship oil in from Russian than to ship by rail to New England. The oil from Canada by way of the Keystone pipeline was heavy and destined for the refineries in the Gulf Coast. This pipeline was designed to import 800,000 barrels per day. Increasing oil and natural gas production now will not deter Putin but over the next few years it can wean Europe away from Russia so that this cannot be used for blackmail again. It is a warning to all countries including the US. It is imperative that the US be energy independent. This was the case in 2020 and can be that way again in 2022 if the government gets out of the way. It seems obvious but apparently some greens believe that burning Russia oil is less damaging to the environment than burning US oil. Why else would they want to stop the pipeline and import oil from Russia. The scientists tell us that even if the Green New Deal were implemented it would not stop global warming. The use of coal in Asia is so great that what the US does has little to no effect. The answer is thorium nuke plants but social change by way of wind and solar have taken center stage leaving nuclear lost in the fog of politics. There are some politicians who understand this as witnessed by the 2020 democratic platform. It took five decades, but the Democratic Party has finally changed its stance on nuclear energy. In its recently released party platform, the Democrats say they favor a “technology-neutral” approach that includes “all zero-carbon technologies, including hydroelectric power, geothermal, existing and advanced nuclear, and carbon capture and storage.”  They still cannot say nuclear but it is included in the phrase, all zero-carbon technologies.