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Steve Benen, over at the Washington Monthly, has produced this little gem. It's not long to read, but this will give you a fair sample:

Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers.

As Benen reasonably remarks, "I see. So, Saudi Arabia's customers are expected to compensate oil producers when they want oil and should also compensate oil producers when they don't want oil."

Apparently, the Saudis are quite serious about this. But then, they've run a restrictive, dictatorial monarchy for years, and gotten away with it because they're widely viewed as the leaders of the oil bloc and "sympathetic" to the outside world. I can't really see why.

That's pretty laughably ridiculous. The last quotation in the article comparing this to cigarette companies requesting compensation for lost sales is spot on.

Wow...
I really hope the powers that be have the balls to tell the Saudis to pound salt.. or pound something anyway..

Of course... the oil producing nations like Saudi Arabia really can't like energy alternatives and so forth, because it means they no longer have everyone bent over a barrel in quite the same way..

To be fair this is repeated by every single industry that are in danger of not being allowed to destroy the environment as much as they are used to. In sweden it's fishermen who are the most vocal ones.

I think it's sometimes a reasonable argument, for example the Somalian pirates who are in large part ex fishermen who lost their principal income due to other peoples overfishing might have been entitled to some kind of compensation. The wast majority of fishermen in sweden, and indeed many other parts of the world as well are not in a similar situation however, and imo deserves very little sympathy.

fable wrote:Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers.

In other words, Saudi Arabia wants to be bribed to stop raping Mother Earth. That seems pretty low to me.

Maybe I'm being a little too logical here...but would it not make sense to just charge more for the oil being used? Yes yes I know, charging more just makes for more incentive to move to other sources of energy, but seeing as we are starting to move in that direction anyway their time of holding everyone over a barrel will be over soon. Either from them running out of product to sell or the finding of alternative sources.

I expect a round of hearty laughter to be directed at them. Seems to me that they are just trying to give their customers more incentive to move on.

jklinders wrote:Maybe I'm being a little too logical here...but would it not make sense to just charge more for the oil being used? Yes yes I know, charging more just makes for more incentive to move to other sources of energy, but seeing as we are starting to move in that direction anyway their time of holding everyone over a barrel will be over soon. Either from them running out of product to sell or the finding of alternative sources.

They can only charge as much as the market can bear, and at the current moment, the market is subdued due to an international recession. They can't get nations to pay more for oil they can afford, so they're thinking they can get more money for the, um, oil they can't afford.

I expect a round of hearty laughter to be directed at them. Seems to me that they are just trying to give their customers more incentive to move on.

It does seem a rather stupid move. And that's surprising, because the Saudis have a reputation for being master diplomats. Perhaps this is coming from above the diplomat core. The royal family is extensive and has its share of Dubya equivalents.

fable wrote:

It does seem a rather stupid move. And that's surprising, because the Saudis have a reputation for being master diplomats. Perhaps this is coming from above the diplomat core. The royal family is extensive and has its share of Dubya equivalents.

Not to mention platinum plated expenses. Let's not forget that. Smacks of desperation, desperate people often do dangerous and frequently fatally stupid things. I very clumsily tried to give market forces their due in my post. they are unlikely to get anything out of this.

jklinders wrote:Not to mention platinum plated expenses. Let's not forget that. Smacks of desperation, desperate people often do dangerous and frequently fatally stupid things. I very clumsily tried to give market forces their due in my post. they are unlikely to get anything out of this.

I see the Saudi royal family as parallel to late Renaissance Spain in this respect, that both have had periods of enormous financial inflow that they spent on luxuries in the upper class, without thought to infrastructure or market and production diversification. The result is that when the boom periods have subsided, they've both been left with little to show for it. Contrast that with the Netherlands, for example, that did superbly well on just these fronts during its so-called Golden Period.

fable wrote:I see the Saudi royal family as parallel to late Renaissance Spain in this respect, that both have had periods of enormous financial inflow that they spent on luxuries in the upper class, without thought to infrastructure or market and production diversification. The result is that when the boom periods have subsided, they've both been left with little to show for it. Contrast that with the Netherlands, for example, that did superbly well on just these fronts during its so-called Golden Period.

There is a lesson here. Spain got positively nasty as it fell from grace, kicking and screaming the whole way. I would rather not see that history repeated.

Must...resist... ...

Our conservative party is still a little busy imploding over here, but I assume the Republicans with their strong belief in free market principles are decrying this demand vociferously, yes? Or is it not a problem 'cos global warming is a myth/natural and so it'll all work itself out - just wait on our new, more authentic Bible, it'll bear us right out?
I'm sure there wouldn't be a deafening silence, anyway...