Trump Put a Tariff on Canada's Oil. What It Did to American Gas Prices Stopped Him Cold.

By The Decision Room

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In 2024, the United States imported a record 4.1 million barrels of crude oil per day from Canada — 62% of ALL U.S. crude imports, and about a quarter of everything American refineries process. Then Trump put a tariff on it, declaring: "We don't need their oil and gas. We have more than anybody." He had it backwards — and the proof shows up at the gas pump. Here's what Washington forgot: not all oil is the same. America's shale boom produces LIGHT crude. But the refineries across the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Rockies were deliberately built — at a cost of billions — to run on HEAVY crude, the kind that comes from Alberta's oil sands. A single coking unit to process it costs $500M–$1B. You can't switch feedstock overnight. The BP Whiting refinery in Indiana — BP's largest refinery on Earth — runs ~90% Canadian crude. Flint Hills Pine Bend in Minnesota runs ~80% Canadian and supplies half the state's gasoline. So who pays the tariff? GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan warned a full tariff co

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