Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Saudis: So Easy To Hate

I got a letter from my oil company yesterday. It says they've noticed that I did a lot of winterizing work to insulate my house and installed a wood stove. They estimate I'll use 15% less oil this winter, so they're adding a 15% charge to my bill each month.

I lied --they aren't really. And I heat with wood and gas, not wood and oil. But that's the same ludicrous argument that the world just heard from the Saudi negotiator getting his pitch ready for the climate talks in Copenhagen in December. 

Even if you ignore the fact that the Global Climate Change is going in the opposite direction recently, the whole thing is insane.
The chief Saudi negotiator, Mohammad al-Sabban, described the position as a “make or break” provision for the Saudis, as nations stake out their stance before the global climate summit scheduled for the end of the year.
“Assisting us as oil-exporting countries in achieving economic diversification is very crucial for us through foreign direct investments, technology transfer, insurance and funding,” Mr. Sabban said in an e-mail message.
This Saudi position has emerged periodically as a source of dispute since the earliest global climate talks, in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It is surfacing again as Saudi Arabia tries to build a coalition of producers to extract concessions in Copenhagen.
Petroleum exporters have long used delaying tactics during climate talks. They view any attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by developed countries as a menace to their economies.

According to the article, the Saudis alone could be asking the rest of the world to cough up $19 billion a year, just for starters.

I wasn't really looking forward to the coverage of the Copenhagen Climate talks but now, I'm hoping that the rest of the world tells OPEC to pound sand and that the Saudi's freeze their asses off in their sheets. Copenhagen in December should be even colder than usual.

3 comments:

Atom Smasher said...

Oh, I think we'll be using plenty of oil to warm our rosy little bottom cheeks this winter. And once the Dems get booted out of congress and the economy can get back on its feet again, we'll be refinancing those poor, poor, tolerant Saudis at a whoreish rate.

Tangalor said...

What a maroon.

Engineer-Poet said...

Chindia is going to have a bigger influence on the world price of oil than we will.

The funny part is Saudi Arabia making noise about wanting to be compensated for reduced oil exports.  It is increasingly obvious that S.A. is peaking or is past its peak oil production (like Cantarell, the North Sea, Alaska's north slope and the East Texas field before it), so scarcity is going to drive the supply of oil henceforth' AGW limits are going to have minimal effect.  About the only thing that could take money away from S.A. is stiff petroleum taxes which persuade consumers to shift their habits earlier than otherwise, which just re-allocates the money from S.A. to the economies of the consuming nations.  Hmmm, sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?

BTW, great blog.

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