Does it make sense?

Dear Editor:

Check the facts before deciding on a candidate or direction for the U.S. Senator John McCain said that if elected, “We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much.” He could not have been talking about U.S. foreign aid as we spend much less. In 2006, the U.S. provided about $27 billion in economic aid to foreign countries and $12 billion in military aid for a total of around $49 billion.

So he must have been referring to the money we spend buying foreign oil. Per the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. imports about 58 percent of its petroleum products. In 2007, the U.S. imported 4.9 billion barrels of oil at an average price of $72 per barrel, or roughly $352 billion — about half of the $700 billion. Based on the consumption of oil in the first half of this year and an average price of $119 per barrel we will spend approximately $571 billion for foreign oil this year. McCain’s figures must come from T. Boone Pickens.

Regarding the “not friendly” reference — which most likely is a reference to countries in the Middle East — we do get about 16 percent of our imported oil from the Persian Gulf (Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia —11 percent — and United Arab Emirates). In 2007 about 40 percent of our imported oil came from Western Hemisphere sources such as: Canada: 18.2 percent, Mexico: 11.4 percent, and Venezuela: 10.1 percent with the next highest source, Nigeria: 8.4 percent.

We do need a new forward thinking energy policy that is based on facts and science, not scare tactics and incorrect information. Before choosing a candidate, take a little time to see if what they say makes sense.

Cathleen Krahe

Carbondale