It scares me when mommy and daddy fight:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush has reassured Saudi Arabia’s king that he will continue to cooperate with the kingdom on energy issues even after his pledge to wean America off Middle East oil, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday.
Bush’s pledge in January to cut U.S. oil imports from the Middle East rankled some kingdom officials, because Saudi Arabia had announced plans to spend $50 billion expanding oil production to meet rising global demand.
“When that statement came out we got in touch with the White House,” Saudi Ambassador Prince Turki Al-Faisal told reporters at a news conference hosted by the United States Energy Association.
Bush later sent a letter to Saudi King Abdullah pledging to honor a 2005 agreement the two reached at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, Al-Faisal said. His remarks provided new details on how the White House smoothed relations with the Saudis after Bush’s speech.
When I see something like this, it almost feels like the pledge to curb our addiction to foreign oil was a completely empty series of mouth sounds that presidents have been making for decades and no one has ever actually tried to do anything. On the plus side, we’re still friends with one Arab country. That supplied most of the 9/11 hijackers. And where women aren’t allowed to drive. (But maybe that’s how they conserve oil.)
June 21st, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Even if the US takes the initiative and strongly starts moving away from oil today, it will take decades for complete independence from the Middle East.
Also, Saudi Arabia has China (9.5% growth), India (8% growth), and many other emerging markets out there that have strong demand growth for oil. Once the US lessens its dependence, we have other potential partners. With oil reserves projected to last 5-8 decades, I think Saudi’s economic diversification plane will pay off down the road anyway.
Oil will never be abandoned. The US is a huge producer of oil with 7.1 million bpd…and with the hundreds of billions being invested in exploration, oil utilization will remain an occurrence in the country.
Women aren’t allowed to drive, yes, but they’re driven everywhere and whenver they want via personal drivers (it seems everybody has one). The “that’s how they conserve oil” remark, although it maybe a joke, isn’t true.