Each day the United States consumes over 19 million barrels of petroleum, over twice the volume that it produces. Conventional power plants, primarily coal-powered, have historically accounted for most of the electrical production in the U.S. However, the 1990s and 2000s have seen a disproportionately large increase in natural gas and other gas-powered plants because of increasing demand, and innovations such as plug-in hybrids have the potential of replacing petroleum demand if sources of clean electricity can be brought on line.

American dependence on foreign oil is increasing. The U.S. demand for oil is expected to grow 44% from its 2002 level by 2025. Also by 2025, imports of petroleum are projected to grow 86% and domestic production of crude oil is expected to decrease by 18% from 2002 levels.

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.