Oil, And All That That Implies
by digby
If anyone still wonders why we are mired in military actions in the middle east this offers a big clue:
Earlier this week, the President announced that the U.S. would unilaterally impose sanctions on Libya because the continued violence there poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security. Mother Jones reports that the business coalition USA*Engage, which reportedly lobbies for oil giants ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, called that approach a “failed strategy.”
USA*Engage — which has also called for the U.S. to remove the travel ban and trade embargo with Cuba — feels that unilateral sanctions put U.S. business at a disadvantage. And even though the coalition called Qaddafi’s violent crackdown “profoundly depressing,” co-chair Bill Reinsch told Mother Jones that its partners, including Big Oil, play RealPolitik when operating abroad in countries like Libya:
“The reality is that the oil in all the nice countries has been exploited already, we can’t drill anymore in Norway,” Reinsch said. “I don’t detect any abiding affection for the Libyan government. In the [oil] business, you don’t have any choices.”
USA*Engage won’t officially disclose its membership and among large U.S. oil industry corporations, only Halliburton has confirmed that it is a member. Mother Jones notes that the group “has also made an effort to shield its powerful members from criticism,” which is perhaps why Reinsch tried to disuade Mother Jones from publishing the report. “I think it would be better for the story never to come out,” he said.
I’m sure it would be nice if people didn’t know about it. But it won’t change the fact that America has known for decades that the places where oil is most plentiful are drastically unstable have had more than 30 years to properly prepare for the day when the fight over resources would become lethal. Instead of moving to alternative sources of energy, when we weren’t gluttonously using as much oil as it was possible for one country to use, we pretended like it wasn’t happening. During the Bush years they even instituted tax credits for people who bought more than one super gas guzzling SUV like the Hummer. Now the day of reckoning may be upon us.
The last thing the economy needs is another oil shock. But allowing Qadaffi to wag war against his people without responding won’t fix that. It’s a problem. Hopefully we’ll cheat our destiny one more time. But we won’t be able to do it forever.
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