Are we really sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year for foreign oil to the most dangerous and unstable regions of the world?

Former Vice President Al Gore continues to misrepresent the amount of money the U.S. spends on crude oil imports from "the most dangerous and unstable regions of the world". According to ABC News, today he said:

As long as we continue to send hundreds of billions of dollars for foreign oil -- year after year -- to the most dangerous and unstable regions of the world, our national security will continue to be at risk.

Hundreds of billions? Really? I would like to see his math!

According to the Department of Energy Energy Information Administration, in November of 2008 the U.S. imported 9.817 million barrels of oil per day from all countries. That included 2.028 million barrels per day from Canada, our largest source of imported oil, 1.461 million barrels per day from Saudi Arabia, our second largest source, and 1.296 million barrels per day from Mexico, our third largest source. The U.S. itself produced 5.064 million barrels per day in 2007.

Excluding Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the UK, countries which any sane person would not consider "dangerous and unstable regions of the world", our crude imports were 6.096 million barrels per day in November.

That works out to 2.225 billion barrels of crude oil imported each year from "the most dangerous and unstable regions of the world", including Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, Nigeria, Iraq, Angola, Columbia, etc.

At $100 a barrel, that would work out to $222.5 billion, technically "hundreds" of billions, but at $50 a barrel those "dangerous" imports work out to $111.3 billion, hardly "hundreds of billions." Even at $75 a barrel, it only costs $166.9 billion, still not in the "hundreds of billions." At $60 per barrel, the cost would be $133.5 billion.

Sure, if you forecast oil up at $200 per barrel, then the cost would go up to $445 billion, but we are not dealing with $200 oil at this time.

There, that's my math. Now, if only we could get the former Vice President (and Nobel Laureate) to start being a little more honest and transparent. I am not holding my breath.

-- Jack Krupansky