Getting drivers out of their cars and onto trains and buses could reduce the money flowing to the region, according to the report by The Environmental Working Group.

“We have to actually really look at our transportation policy and consider that to be part of our energy strategy and our national security strategy,” said Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group.

The group said southern cities with fewer mass transit options sent more money to the Middle East, with Nashville, Tenn., exporting $312 per household.

The Denver area was the highest in the West, with $279 sent overseas. Salt Lake City-Ogden was 14th of the 50 cities analyzed by the group, with a total of $68,511,780 sent to the region.

Wiles said a major transportation bill recently passed by Congress shortchanges mass transit in favor of further road construction, further locking the nation into oil dependence.

He said states should step up and invest some of their flexible federal dollars into transit systems.

The actual amount of money flowing overseas could be even larger than cited in the report, due to the recent spike in oil prices, which are near $70 per barrel.

Brian Kennedy, spokesman for House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said part of the solution to foreign oil dependency is additional domestic production, which environmental groups have resisted.

He said it is unrealistic to think the United States will stop using oil in the next several decades.

Congress is preparing for a contentious vote on whether to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling when members return next month.

Wiles said his group opposes ANWR drilling and opening new areas of the Intermountain West to drilling.