Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, briefing memo for Hearing entitled Drilling Down on America’s Energy Future: Safety, Security and Clean Energy: “The United States’ dependence on foreign oil has also increased over time. In 1995, the United States imported 45 percent of its oil. By 2008, that number had increased to 57 percent. As a result, the U.S. economy spent roughly $900 billion on petroleum products in 2008. While prices and consumption have decreased in 2009 as a result of the economic downturn, the United States still imported nearly 52 percent of the oil it consumed last year. The United States possesses only 2 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves but consumes roughly 25 percent of the world’s oil.”