Hillary Clinton Said America Is Energy Independent. It Is Not

by Tom DiChristopher (CNBC) Hillary Clinton said during the second presidential debate on Sunday that the United States has achieved energy independence, but the country still imports millions of barrels a day of oil and petroleum products — much of it from the Middle East.

"We've got to remain energy-independent. It gives us much more power and freedom than to be worried about what goes on in the Middle East," she added.

The United States imported 9.4 million barrels of crude and petroleum products in 2015, and imports are on the rise this year, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Of the 2015 total, 2.9 million barrels came from OPEC countries, and 1.5 million came from Persian Gulf countries.

That record includes a program to promote natural gas development overseas through the use of hydraulic fracturing ....

That said, while the Obama administration has ratcheted up regulations and limited drilling on federal land, it also presided over a 75 percent increase in U.S. crude output in its first seven years. The boom continued until a sharp oil price downturn forced American producers to cut back output.

The Clinton campaign has not detailed a plan for how it would achieve its goal. It has proposed offering grants to phase out home heating fuel, supporting electric vehicle infrastructure and more quickly deploying natural gas-fueled trucks, buses, trains and ships.

Peter Saundry, chief scientist at the National Council for Science and the Environment, says he too believes Clinton's oil consumption goal would be difficult to accomplish.

One reason: New, advanced biofuels have failed to deliver on early expectations, confounding attempts to increase the ratio of products like ethanol that are mixed into gasoline under the EPA's national Renewable Fuel Standard Program, Saundry said.

At the same time, oil prices have remained persistently low following a price collapse in 2014, raising demand for SUVs and pickup trucks and emboldening the auto industry to push back on fuel standards, he said.

For one, the State Department under Clinton launched the Bureau of Resource Management, which sought to export shale drilling capabilities in order to reduce U.S. allies' reliance on coal and natural gas from Russia.

Clinton took a harder stance on fracking while locked in a tough primary with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who backs a national ban on the drilling method, but a close examination of her statements shows she has left herself considerable leeway to allow fracking to operate largely as it does already. READ MORE and MORE (Huffington Post) and MORE (The Intercept) and MORE (Business Insider) and MORE (Platts) and MORE (Politico's Morning Energy)

Excerpt from The Intercept: Starting early in her tenure as Secretary of State, Clinton traveled the globe encouraging foreign countries to adopt fracking technology. Clinton has both publicly and privately explained that she views fracking, under the right circumstances, as the most environmentally sound method of transitioning away from other fossil fuels such as oil and coal. She has also said that fracking can make the U.S. and other nations energy independent, a foreign policy goal that may weaken gas exporting countries such as Russia.

But in private, Clinton also asserted that there is a conspiracy of Russian-funded groups attempting to suppress fracking development. During a speech to a group in Canada called tinePublic, Clinton claimed that there are “phony environmental groups” that are “funded by the Russians to stand against” fracking. READ MORE

Excerpt from Morning Energy: Hillary Clinton repeatedly praised the economic and geopolitical benefits of U.S. natural gas production in paid Wall Street speeches after leaving the State Department, according to apparent excerpts made public by WikiLeaks. As Pro’s Elana Schor reports, Clinton told Goldman Sachs in 2013 that the domestic fracking boom was "mostly a positive," adding: "Obviously it's imperative that we exploit the oil and gas in the most environmentally careful way."

Echoing a talking point popular among gas companies and pro-export politicians, Clinton said exporting U.S. gas would help counter Russian influence in Europe: “I want to be able to export gas, especially to our friends, in order to undercut in Europe's case the pressure from Russia," she said during a 2014 speech to Deutsche Bank. But she acknowledged the need to go beyond current fracking safety regulations in several speeches and said there would be certain places where fracking could not be done safely: "I'm not crazy about the consequences of natural gas with the release of methane, but it is replacing coal," she said during 2014 remarks at the University of Miami. "We have to be smarter about the technology and about the control of how we extract oil and gas in the United States and elsewhere to try to get as close to a clean bridge as possible."

The excerpts on oil and gas development comprised six pages of an 80-page roundup of potentially controversial speech excerpts flagged by her speaker's bureau. Hackers obtained the document by accessing Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's personal email account. Podesta condemned the “illegal” hack in a statement Wednesday and said it represented an effort by Russia to meddle in the election that “should send chills down the spine of all Americans.” READ MORE