Appendix 1. U.S. Crude Oil Production and Imports Since World War II

The following two tables chart the growth, peak and decline of U.S. crude oil production over the past 150 years; and the steep growth of U.S. dependency on crude oil imports beginning in the postwar years.

• Between 1950 and 2009, annual U.S. crude oil production first grew from 1.9 billion barrels annually (5 million barrels a day) to peak at 3.7 billion barrels in 1970 (9.7 million barrels a day). Then it declined to post-war levels.

• From 1970, the year of peak domestic production, to 2009, annual U.S. imports of crude oil soared from 0.5 to 3.3 billion barrels (from 1.4 to 9.0 million barrels a day).