Ahead of the 2020 State of the Union address, the American Petroleum Institute put together a primer to cover current U.S. energy policy.

FIVE FAST FACTS

  1. The U.S. is the world’s No. 1 producer of natural gas and oil, and for the first time in nearly 60 years, America now exports more energy than it imports. By contrast, energy imports had represented 44% of the U.S. trade deficit as recently as 2008, dropping to 5.2% in 2018, and then just 1.2% in the first 10 months of 2019.
  2. America’s natural gas and oil industry supports nearly eight percent of the U.S. GDP and over 10.9 million full- and part-time jobs through direct employment and indirect support to other sectors of the economy.
  3. American households save $203 billion annually as a result of lower energy prices made possible by increased domestic energy production. According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, this translates to $2,500 in annual savings for a family of four.
  4. U.S. energy consumption reached a record 101.2 quadrillion Btu in 2018 of which 67% was provided by natural gas and oil. Natural gas is used to heat nearly half of U.S. homes while another 10% of households rely on propane and home heating oil. Meanwhile, more than 35% of U.S. electricity generation comes from natural gas.
  5. The Department of the Interior collected more than $9.2 billion in revenue from the development of natural gas and oil resources on public lands and federal waters. This revenue is critically important to the success of numerous federal, state and local priorities, including the Land and Water Conservation Fund which relies almost exclusively on revenue generated from offshore oil and gas leasing.