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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (53313)	10/20/2002 12:32:35 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

For all these reasons, if we really want to hasten the transition from autocracy to something more democratic in places like Iraq or Iran, the most important thing we can do is gradually, but steadily, bring down the price of oil — through conservation and alternative energies. Well, you know, if lowering the price of oil is your goal, applying modern technology to the oil fields of Iraq and exapnding the supply is a great step towards achieving that goal.

To: stockman_scott who wrote (53313)	10/20/2002 8:46:29 AM
From: quehubo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Scott - Friedman is stressing a strategy that I have been stressing here for some time. We can threaten these tyrants within OPEC with a visible and effective program to reduce our oil demand. This could be an offensive strategy as well as a defensive one. With higher fuel efficiency we would be less impacted by interruptions in supply. Also we would be funding their regimes less. There are several complications to this though, lowering our demand would lower prices and make fuel more affordable for the other 5.6 billion people on the planet. This may offset our reductions to some degree. Also lower prices will reduce non OPEC supply and increase the planets dependence on OPEC. Needless to say, I believe our country is in for several major energy shocks over the next decade that will force us to improve our energy efficiency. As a result of the increasing scarcity of natural gas, industries today are being shuttered and exported overseas. We will become more dependent on ME natural gas supplies just as we are their oil. Fortunately there is plenty of natural gas on the globe, just not enough capabilities to transport it. The other shock will be interruptions in oil supply and or a reckoning that this resources availability has reached its peak.