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It makes Russia an ally of the West in a vital Western economic security interest.

U.S. Petroleum & Crude Oil Overview
(thousand barrels per day)
	1960	1965	1970	1975	1980	1985	1990	1995	2000
U.S. Crude Oil Production	7,035	7,804	9,637	8,375	8,597	8,971	7,355	6,560	5,834
U.S. Petroleum Imports	1,815	2,468	3,419	6,056	6,909	5,067	8,018	8,835	11,093
Total	8,850	10,272	13,056	14,431	15,506	14,038	15,373	15,395	16,927
Imports as % of Total	20.5	24.0	26.2	42.0	44.6	36.1	52.2	57.4	65.5

Since the Arab Oil Embargo (almost 30 years ago), U.S. dependence on imported oil has risen from 25% to over 65%.

The REAL U.S. National Security interest is to REDUCE this dependence on imported oil.

The alternate sources of energy available that are most capable of providing the vast quantity necessary to achieve this are nuclear and clean-coal electric power generation.

Construction of modern, efficient, electricly-powered mass-transportation systems in our nation's most densely populated regions and urban areas would further reduce our petroleum consumption, thus enhancing our national security.

It would be interesting to see a similar set of numbers for other raw materials and some finished materials as well. My suspicion is that this is not an oil trend, but an overall fact of life in america that very few industries are immune too. Only the industries that are impossible to export to cheap labor markets will remain in america....Construction, transportation, vendors and suppliers and retail, defense, various repair industries. And these industries will be awash in illegal aliens that receive reduced wages.

Most of that "imported" oil now comes from Canada, Mexico and South America. I can live with that.