Bentsen: Energy Policy beyond 'Gunboat Diplomacy' Necessary / Oil Import Hike Coming

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WASHINGTON - Calling for an energy policy that goes beyond gunboat diplomacy, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen has warned that the United States will be importing increasing amounts of oil from the Persian Gulf.

The Texas Democrat, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, released a six-page Congressional Research Service study of oil consumption and demand in the United States that predicts a dwindling amount of oil from countries which are not members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

U.S. oil production is projected to decline by 25 percent to 50 percent by the turn of the century, and imports from many non-OPEC countries are also on the wane, …