“About half of these imports came from the Western Hemisphere. Our dependence on foreign petroleum has declined since peaking in 2005.”
It doesn’t matter whether our oil comes from Saudi Arabia or Texas. If world oil prices go up then the cost of oil in the United States will go up. Oil is a freely traded commodity. If England, Germany or China bids $200/ barrel then the price will be $200/barrel here as well.
The truly frightening thing is that Obama said about coal that if his plans were successful “then the price of energy will necessarily skyrocket.” That tells me that beyond a few political statements about bringing the price down that he will still nix pipelines and drilling permits. Of course, he’ll probably blame Bush.