William Helms: “one troubling aspect of our determining national security is the manner in which the United States has become more and…”

“one troubling aspect of our determining national security is the manner in which the United States has become more and more deeply dependent upon foreign countries to supply the bulk of our energy needs for the American people. I was holding hearings on this perilous situation a decade ago when I was chairman of the Agriculture Committee; and again this past Congress in my present capacity as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The administration does acknowledge that this is a national security concern, but, the administration has done precisely nothing about U.S. dependency on foreign oil. Mr. President, the American Petroleum Institute reports that for the week ending January 24, the U.S. imported 7,840,000 barrels of oil, 945,000 barrels more than the 6,895,000 imported during the same week a year ago. To put it another way, Americans relied on foreign oil for 54.7 percent of their needs last week, and there are no signs that the upward spiral will abate. Before the Persian Gulf war, the United States obtained approximately 45 percent of its oil supply from foreign countries. During the Arab oil embargo in the 1970's, foreign oil accounted for only 35 percent of America s oil supply. Which raises the inevitable questions: is anybody else interested in restoring domestic production of oil--by U.S. producers using American workers?”