Energy security

Ethanol is crucial to our national security

Together with the American oil and gas industry, we have made great strides in reducing imports and boosting domestic energy supplies. The ethanol industry alone has added nearly 3.3 billion barrels of low-cost, high-octane liquid fuel to domestic supplies since the RFS was adopted in 2005 — that’s more than 1,000 gallons per U.S. household. As a result, net imports of crude oil and petroleum products peaked at 12.5 million barrels per day in 2005 and have since fallen to about 5 million barrels per day last year.

However, true energy independence remains elusive and the U.S. still imports significant volumes of oil from OPEC and nations hostile to our interests.

In 2016, 40 percent of U.S. oil imports came from OPEC and the U.S. economy sent roughly $140 million per day to the cartel, equivalent to an annual bill of nearly $500 for every American family. Saudi Arabia was the second-leading supplier of U.S. oil imports, and shipments from Iraq nearly doubled. As a veteran, I would prefer to spend our energy dollars in the Midwest, not the Middle East.