Detroit will dodge Obama's fuel rules

In his presentation Mike Milken explores foreign oil dependence for the USA and presidential statements: President Richard Nixon (in 1974 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources): “At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need.” President Gerald Ford (in 1975 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources): “We must reduce oil imports by one million barrels per day by the end of this year and by two million barrels per day by the end of 1977.”

From Daniel Yergin's September WSJ article "

From Mort Zuckerman's editorial in today

The United States uses far more oil than any other country. The chart shows this very well. The chart shows all countries using over 2 million barrels of oil a day. The USA consumed 18.7 million barrels a day in 2009. Only China was also over 5 million barrels, they reached 8.2 million in 2009. Japan is next at 4.4 million.

The chart shows the oil production over the last decade by the top oil producing countries. Production totals include crude oil, shale oil, oil sands and NGLs (the liquid content of natural gas where this is recovered separately). Excludes liquid fuels from other sources such as biomass and coal derivatives.

FOR decades, American politicians have bemoaned their economy's dependence on foreign oil and failed utterly at doing anything about it. Now, two key developments—soaring prices and new technologies—are beginning to accomplish what politicians couldn't. Consider two charts. First, from the Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook: