President Obama may claim that U.S. oil dependence is at an all time low, but an Energy Information Administration report out Wednesday shows oil production is booming in spite of Obama's policies, not because of them.
U.S. oil production did reach a record high in 2011. According to the EIA's 2012 Annual Energy Outlook, the United States produced a record 5.12 million barrels of oil a day in 2011. That was up 5 percent from 4.87 million barrels a day in 2010. But all of that growth, and more, came from production gains on private lands. Oil production on federal lands actually dropped.
According to the EIA report released Wednesday, oil production on federal lands fell 14 percent last year from 726 million barrels in 2010 to 626 million barrels in 2011.
Commenting on rising gas prices, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., told CNBC yesterday, "This president, despite what he says, has suppressed our energy production, and i think that's added to the speculation that we're not going to have the supply that we need in the future. So the president has had a lot to do with our energy prices. Unfortunately, it's the only promise he's kept. He has said he wanted to increase prices. His secretary of energy has said he wanted to increase gasoline prices, and he's kept that promise."
