RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: NPR's business news starts with an American energy boom.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Yesterday, White House spokesman Jay Carney made this announcement.</s>JAY CARNEY: In October, for the first time in nearly two decades, domestic oil production - which is at a 24 year high, surpassed foreign oil imports.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: As NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports, The U.S. is producing more crude oil at home than it imports, the U.S. is still a long way from energy independence, but the trend is decidedly positive.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: The latest milestone shows up in the October numbers released by the Energy Dept. Domestic crude production topped net imports by 170,000 barrels a day.</s>PHILIP VERLEGER: It's a milestone because nobody ever thought this was going to happen. All the rest of world looking on didn't expect us to be producing more and consuming less.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: That's Phillip Verleger, an independent energy economist.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: Consumption has fallen as the recession and high prices at the pump prompted Americans to change their driving habits. They're driving less and in more fuel-efficient cars.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: At the same time, the production of oil - especially from shale - has been rising. And says Verleger...</s>PHILIP VERLEGER: Technology is going to improve for the oil extraction, so oil production is going to keep rising.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: What will it all mean at the pump. Analyst Tom Klousa of the Oil Price Information Service predicts gas prices are headed down just a bit. Right now, the average price is about $3.19 a gallon.</s>TOM KLOUSA: I think between now and, let's say Martin Luther King weekend, we will probably bottom out between 3.05 and 3.15.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
The U.S. produced more crude oil than it imported in October. That's the first time that has happened since 1995. The U.S. is still a long way from energy independence, but the trend is decidedly positive.