Each day the United States consumes over 19 million barrels of petroleum, over twice the volume of petroleum it produces. The US has and continues to get most of its electrical production from conventional thermal power plants. Most of these are coal, however, the 1990s and 2000s have seen a disproportionate increase in natural gas and other kinds of gas powered plants because of increasing demand.

U.S. dependence on foreign oil is increasing. U.S. demand for oil is expected to grow 44% from 2002 levels by 2025. Imports of petroleum are projected to grow 86% from 2002 levels by 2025. Domestic production of crude oil is projected to decrease 18% from 2002 levels by 2025.

Projections of the need for crude oil imports have reached an all-time high. In January 2004, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected net crude oil imports to the United States of 15.74 million barrels per day in 2025, a 20.5% increase over the 2003 projection of 13.06 million barrels per day in 2025.