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Former CIA chief: ‘Oil dependence threatens US, Israel’
MICHAL LANDO, The Jerusalem Post
The case for reducing the United States’ dependence on oil is most often argued by environmentalists concerned about global warming and ozone depletion. But a growing number of people are drawing what they consider to be a crucial link between oil and national security. They argue that America’s reliance on oil is the number one security threat facing the country.
One figure who has emerged in this debate is co-chairman of the Committee on the Present Danger and former director of the CIA, R. James Woolsey, who spoke in New York this week at an event sponsored by the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank that seeks to define and promote America’s interests in the Middle East. Woolsey argues that America’s reliance on oil as the primary source of fuel is one of the greatest barriers to national security and threatens both the US and Israel.
“The way strategically over the long run to weaken the enemies of Israel, such as Ahmadinejad, is to weaken the role of oil,” Woolsey said. “Oil makes it harder to avoid genocide in Darfur because the Sudanese have a deal with China, and it makes it harder to deal with Iran, because China and Iran have an oil deal.”
(3 Nov 2006)
Ex-energy secretary sees further rise in oil prices
RABIN GUPTA, The Peninsula
The long-term trend as far as oil prices are concerned is that they will rule at the present levels or may possibly go higher.
Former US energy secretary Spencer Abraham told The Peninsula yesterday that he doubted prices would fall given the current levels of demand which was also growing at a rapid pace.
Abraham served as Energy Secretary in the George W Bush administration from 2001 to 2005.
He said: “It is clear to me that real spare production is significantly less that it has ever been. It is now near peak season, and there is not much (spare production) left.”
(13 Nov 2006)
Oil revenues fuel resistance to U.S.
Kim Murphy, L.A. Times
The increase in oil prices is the common denominator in some of Washington’s most implacable foreign policy challenges. From the U.S. government’s perspective, oil money empowers regimes to defy American policy on a host of key issues, including nuclear nonproliferation and human rights.
Viewed another way, oil allows developing nations to challenge what their leaders see as years of lopsided U.S. dominance over international markets and the politics of the Middle East, Latin America and Central Asia.
(12 Nov 2006)
Bill Allowing More Drilling Along Coasts Appears Dead
Clifford Krauss, NY Times
HOUSTON, Nov. 9 – Just a few months ago House Republicans and representatives of the energy industry were poised to rewrite a quarter-century of national energy policy and open the seas off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling, which environmentalists had fervently resisted.
But Tuesday’s Democratic victory in midterm elections has changed the legislative landscape, obliterating the chances that anything close to the aggressive drilling bill passed by the House of Representatives will be enacted for years to come.
(11 Nov 2006)
Attorney Mark Menezes sees environment, global warming as factors in ’08 elections (transcript & video)
Darren Samuelsohn, E&E TV
As the Democrats prepare to take on leadership of both the House and Senate, questions still remain as to whether they will be successful in passing climate change legislation. During today’s OnPoint, Mark Menezes, partner at Hunton & Williams, discusses how the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Environment and Public Works committees will shape the future success of climate change legislation. Menezes does not see a high probability that climate legislation will come into final law prior to 2008 but sees fairly ambitious goals put forth in the interim.
(13 Nov 2006)
