New federal statistics show that, for the first time since 1949, the United States is exporting more petroleum products than it’s importing.

Does your life feel any different?

This is something of a trick question, as we’ll explain in a moment. But this goes to the heart of the long debate about “energy independence.”

And yet gasoline prices remain near $4 per gallon, and tensions over Iran threaten to disrupt the world’s supply of crude, not to mention the global economy. So if prices are up and tensions remain high, what does being a petroleum products exporter really mean?

One thing is that it shows how one of the favorite promises of American politicians, “energy independence,” may not actually do