It’s likely oil will continue to be the mainstay of our energy source for at least the next couple of decades. One issue has always been our country’s reliance on foreign oil. But N.C. State University economist Mike Walden says this is beginning to change.

 

“It actually is …. And I think it’ll change more if the current trends continue. And there are two big trends emerging:

 

“One, domestic U.S. oil production has been increasing very, very rapidly after decades of where it went down. Now this is not enough to make up for our need to buy foreign-produced oil, but it is causing us to be a little … less reliant, if you will, on foreign sources. So, that’s one trend.

 

“The second trend, in terms of where we buy our foreign oil, we are shifting. W have seen a shift away from buying from the Middle East to buying from Canada. Canada’s oil production has been skyrocketing. And we’re taking advantage of that. Canada obviously is very close. We have very good political relations with Canada. So we have seen a shift of American companies in terms of their purchases of oil away from the Middle East to Canada.