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We must act now to lower gas prices and put more money in the pocketbooks of Hoosiers. Dick Lugar has long worked to protect Hoosiers from volatile oil prices and secure our country. He is currently working to revise and improve a bill he introduced in the last Congress to reduce our need for foreign energy sources by 40%. He continues to provide much needed leadership on behalf of Hoosiers. He has voted consistently in favor of expanding domestic oil production, increasing the use and production of alternative fuels, and strengthening fuel economy standards. As gas prices once again jump higher, Hoosiers are reminded that their energy security and economic well-being is once again in the hands of foreign countries. As a nation, we are importing more oil now than we were prior to September 11, 2001. In the first three quarters of 2010, Americans sent nearly a billion dollars overseas each day to buy oil products. Higher and increasingly volatile oil prices both strain Hoosier families and threaten to hamper our nation's economic recovery.
Currently America relies on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates to maintain a supply cushion, known as spare capacity, to make up for shortfalls. Although Libya produces less than 2 million barrels per day out of a global market of around 88 million barrels, loss of that country's reliable production due to political instability in Libya is cutting deeply into spare capacity. This loss has caused the recent surge in oil prices. lusn We are living in an age when every American motorist is vulnerable to violence in Libya and a number of other oil-rich states concentrated in the Middle East, to terrorist activity, to embargos, or simply to the supply decisions of rulers far from our shores.
Every barrel of oil we can produce, every barrel we can replace with domestic alternative fuels, and every barrel we can avoid using through more efficient means is of outsized importance. Dick Lugar has long been at the forefront of efforts to reduce US vulnerability resulting from our foreign oil dependence and improve the reliability and transparency of oil markets. Specifically, he is working to:
Dick Lugar recognizes that gasoline price relief will come only when we use all our domestic and diplomatic resources wisely. Below is a selection of Senator Lugar’s speeches, articles and statements on the dangers of America’s foreign oil dependence:
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Because oil is a globally traded commodity, the price Hoosiers pay at the pump is directly impacted by the supply and demand decisions of diverse international actors. Global oil demand is once again accelerating, particularly in China, and meanwhile production is struggling to stay adequately ahead. 
Relief from high and volatile oil prices will come when Americans are not as vulnerable to the vagaries of global markets.