America’s dangerous addiction to foreign oil sucked almost half a trillion dollars out of the U.S. economy and shipped it overseas. The recipients? Primarily state-owned oil companies.
Worth noting is the fact that the $434 billion that Americans spent on foreign oil last year equals the total amount of unemployment benefits paid to ALL Americans during the five-year span from 2007 through 2011.
The most recent snapshot – the month of December – reveals that 318 million barrels of petroleum were imported at an average price of $109.49 per barrel. That works out to a cost of $780,678.91 per minute or $34.8 billion for the entire month.
For the last six months, consumers have endured oil prices above $100 a barrel. Moreover, they have been above $100 a barrel for 22 of the last 23 months.