News headlines continue to remind Americans that we are energy independent. Bottom Line analysts say that’s true to a point.
We continue to keep an eye on gasoline and fuel prices, hopefully near a top as we move through spring and into summer. But in reviewing our expanding energy independence, Bottom Line analysts point out that most of our refineries are 50 years old or older. They were designed then to refine the heavy crude that we imported at the time and continue.
The shale oil fields and fracking that we do now produce a lighter crude that many of our refineries are simply not designed to handle. So Bottom Line, the fact of the matter is we export a large amount of light crude, but we do import lesser amounts though. We do import heavy crude.
Audio Reporting by Mark Oppold for Southeast AgNet.