When the Rivers Run Dry : Water--The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century President Bush’s contention that America’s economy is “petroleum-based” is not entirely accurate. Although oil makes up approximately 40 percent of total U.S. energy consumption, coal and natural gas each now supply about 25 percent of the total energy consumed by the United States. So, while oil is a major element in America’s energy supplies, it is by no means the only significant factor. Disruption in natural gas or coal supplies would pose major problems to the American economy.

Until recently, the United States was in pretty good shape when it came to natural gas. Prices were low and supplies sufficient. In 2000, for example, North America consumed nearly one-third of the world’s annual output of natural gas. Unlike oil, for which the United States, Canada, and Mexico together produced only 60 percent of the supplies they consumed, the three countries produced nearly 100 percent of the natural gas consumed. Bound together by free trade agreements, the continental market for natural gas more than doubled through the 1990s.

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