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Comment by stannol | Hacker News Reader

Nowadays no first-world country is capable of being fully self-sustaining without suffering immensely - especially the US, which relies heavily on cheap energy with large amounts being imported.

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While I agree with your point about self-sustainability, the US now produces almost as much energy as it uses. From the world bank (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.IMP.CONS.ZS) these are 2013 figures percent of energy use imported:

    Denmark      4
    France      46
    Germany     62
    Italy       77
    Netherlands 10
    Spain       71
    Sweden      29
    Japan       94
    Korea       83

    US          15
    Canada     -73
    Mexico     -19

The US may import crude oil but one of the main exports is refined fuels. We are exporting ~half of what we are importing in July.

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_wkly_dc_nus-z00_mbblpd_...

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