Is America importing less oil today than it did four years ago? Well, that is certainly the claim of the President who cites this drop as a major accomplishment of his Administration. But according to the Institute for Energy Research, the reasons for the decrease in oil imports has little to do with the President’s policies and everything to do with a weak economy and high oil prices – developments the President probably doesn’t want to take credit for. Even worse, while it’s true the nation is importing less oil overall, it is also true that what it does import now comes, more so than four years ago, from dangerous parts of the world, particularly the Persian Gulf. So it appears the Administrations figures, like oil, need to be refined.