CBO: Increasing domestic oil doesn’t help energy security much

Increasing domestic production of oil won’t significantly boost energy security in the United States, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office. As The Houston Chronicle reports, the CBO’s report advocates policies to reduce demand for oil, such as promoting more fuel-efficient and alternative-fuel vehicles. “Policies that promoted greater production of oil in the United States would probably not protect U.S. consumers from sudden worldwide increase in oil prices, even if increased production lowered the world price of oil on an ongoing basis,” the report says. “In fact, such lower prices would encourage greater use of oil, thus making consumers more vulnerable to increases in oil prices.” The report, which you can see in its entirety here, assessed the nation’s ability to withstand disruptions to its energy supply. The United States is more susceptible to disruptions in crude oil than to other types of energy fluctuations because the nation relies heavily on crude oil for transportation. Also, the U.S. maintains a larger stock of natural gas and coal than it does for oil, the report notes. Further, the lack of fuel diversity for transportation makes the U.S. transportation system highly susceptible to the oil market. By comparison, the nation’s electric power is generated from an array of sources, including coal, natural gas and renewables. The CBO also produced an interesting infographic to visualize the results of its report, which you can check out here.