The Panhandle Import Reduction Initiative was established to educate political leaders and law makers on the importance of reducing imported oil supplies to bolster the US economy and national security. It proposes a grass roots, updated version of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1959 US Quota on Petroleum Imports that set out to:

• Insure a stable, healthy industry in the United States capable of exploring for and developing new hemisphere reserves which meet requirements for our national security . . . to preserve to the greatest extent possible a vigorous, healthy petroleum industry in the US. 

• Keep oil imports at roughly 10 - 12% of US consumption

• Favor "hemisphere" imports / development as opposed to oil brought across oceans (ie. overseas imports) 

The initiative aims to do this by persuading US energy policy makers to:

• Eliminate imports of foreign LTO (aka "light foreign oil"), relying instead on domestic production of same from US shale plays.

• Phase in a gradual decrease of foreign heavy oil imports over time, eventually reaching the 10 - 12% levels called out in the 1959 quota plan.