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"We have no long-term energy policy.
We don’t even seem to recognize the existence of a long-term problem. Rather, we simply vacillate from panic to complacency in response to short-term shortages and surpluses."
Dr. Craig Bond Hatfield, Geology Professor Emeritus
University of Toledo
How Long Can Oil Supply Grow?  by Craig Bond Hatfield
M. King Hubbert Center for Petroleum Supply Studies

US, CANADA AND JAPAN
SELL OUT CLEAN FUTURE FOR ARAB OIL

"The Americans, Saudis and Japanese have got what they wanted... It's worse than we could have imagined."
Steve Sawyer, climate policy director of Greenpeace
Earth Summit Agrees Deal on Energy  
Reuters/FT  September 2, 2002

    Hunter Lovins, an expert on industrial efficiency whose clients include the Pentagon and big business, said the failure at a U.N. summit of world leaders meant the planet would pay a high price to get to a sustainable future, including more climate chaos and possibly wars over resources.
    "I am ashamed of my government and now I am ashamed of the leaders of all the world, with the exception of those countries that tried very hard to get those targets," said Lovins, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. green movement.
    ...On Monday evening the European Union dropped its insistence on setting the world's first targets to boost the use of renewable energy sources, in what was widely viewed as a victory for the United States and OPEC oil-exporting states.
    ....Lovins said the energy chapter of the accord did nothing to stop governments using taxpayers' money to subsidize conventional energy sources such as oil, gas and nuclear at the expense of renewables like wind, solar and modern biomass.
    Lovins, who estimates these subsidies at $200 billion, argued that the world would now "pay twice" to clean up the damage she said these technologies caused.
    "We didn't have to do this the hard way. But now the world is going to pay much of the money that could have been used for sustainable development to forms of energy that are endangering life on the planet."
    "This will lead to floods, famines and violent storms which will force the world community to pay yet again to deal with those disasters which they caused by paying those stupid subsidies in the first place," she said.
Top American Green Ashamed of Summit Energy Deal
by William Maclean      Reuters    September 3, 2002

    To the outrage of environmentalists, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and other nations at a U.N. summit worked Tuesday to water down promises to rapidly expand the use of clean, renewable energy technologies around the globe.
    ...Sources sitting in on the negotiations said the U.S., Saudi Arabia and other oil states were among several nations whose delegates were lobbying to eliminate specific goals to expand the use of renewable energy from the conference's implementation plan.

 "If renewable energy is to grow and costs are to go down, it will need targets and frameworks."
Mark Moody-Stuart
former Shell Oil chairman , chairman of Business Action for Sustainable Development, an advocacy group organized following the Rio Summit.
Clean Energy Tech Promises Watered Down At UN Summit
by Joseph B. Verrengia    AP       August 27, 2002

AMERICA FOR SALE

    ...The Saudis have hired several public relations firms and have already spent more than $5 million, according to new Justice Department filings.
    These firms include one of Washington's most prominent, Patton Boggs, which received $170,000 in the first six months of this year, according to the filings. Patton Boggs is especially known for its contacts among Democrats. It was founded by Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., a well-connected Democratic lobbyist, whose father, Representative Hale Boggs, was majority leader, and whose sister is the journalist Cokie Roberts.
    The Saudi government has also hired Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, a firm founded by Robert W. Strauss, the former head of the Democratic National Committee, paying out $161,799 in the first half of 2002, the filings show. Frederick Dutton, a former special assistant to President John F. Kennedy and a longtime adviser to the Saudis, received $536,000 to help manage the Saudis' handling of the aftermath of Sept. 11 — and he has a continuing contract with that government.
    The Saudis have also turned to lobbyists with Republican credentials, hiring James P. Gallagher, a former staff member for Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, and the media-buying firm of Sandler-Innocenzi, which has strong Republican connections.
Worried Saudis Try to Improve Image in the U.S.
by Christopher Marquis    New York Times     August 29, 2002
Arab Oil Wealth Hits Highest Level
ABQ Zawya  August 29, 2002

    "The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader," stated the explosive briefing. It was presented on July 10 to the Defense Policy Board, a group of prominent intellectuals and former senior officials that advises the Pentagon on defense policy.
    "Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies," said the briefing prepared by Laurent Murawiec, a Rand Corp. analyst. A talking point attached to the last of 24 briefing slides went even further, describing Saudi Arabia as "the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent" in the Middle East.
Briefing Depicted Saudis as Enemies
by Thomas E. Ricks      Washington Post     August 6, 2002

    Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fuelling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West's key allies in the war on terror.
Saudi Arabia Could Fall to al-Qaeda
by Martin Bright, Nick Pelham and Paul Harris
The Observer/Guardian (United Kingdom)    July 28, 2002

"Dependence on foreign oil—which bears heavily on the size of our military and greatly influences our foreign policy — could be sharply curtailed through the broad use of hydrogen fuel cells."
Dr. Nirmal Chatterjee
VP, Environmental, Health and Safety and Corporate Engineering
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
Hearing on the Reauthorization of the Office of Pipeline Safety
Testimony of Dr. Nirmal Chatterjee
before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit   February 13, 2002

Saudi Arabia Could Fall to al-Qaeda
by Martin Bright, Nick Pelham and Paul Harris
The Observer/Guardian (United Kingdom)  July 28, 2002

    Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fuelling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West's key allies in the war on terror. Anti-government demonstrations have swept the desert kingdom in the past months in protest at the pro-American stance of the de facto ruler, Prince Abdullah.
    At the same time, Whitehall officials are concerned that Abdullah could face a palace coup from elements within the royal family sympathetic to al-Qaeda.      more

West's Greed for
Oil Fuels Saddam
Fever
by Anthony Sampson
The Observer (UK) 
August 11, 2002

Is the projected war against Iraq really turning into an oil war, aimed at safeguarding Western energy supplies as much as toppling a dangerous dictator and source of terrorism?     more

Will U.S. Foreign Policy
Be Held Hostage to Arab Oil?

"If the United States doesn't do more to reduce the violence, there will be grave consequences for the US and its interests."

Saudi Dictator Abdullah    May 1, 2002    Lloyd's List  
While not an open threat to cut off Saudi crude supplies to the West, a nervous oil market took the Crown Prince's ominous statement to mean just that. 

ARAB MEDIEVALIST'S MACHIAVELLIAN STRATEGIES SUGGEST U.S. OIL EMBARGO;
RAISE DOUBT ON ARAB OIL STABILITY;
PROVIDE INCENTIVE FOR RENEWABLES

The US press corps pummeled Education Minister Limor Livnat at a press conference at the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Monday over the disclosure of documents showing Saudi Arabia funneled $135 million over the last 16 months to Hamas and the families of dead terrorists. Are you saying, one reporter continuously asked Livnat, that Saudi Arabia is funding terror against Israel? Livnat would not answer directly, saying only that the "facts speak for themselves."
Livnat Puts Saudis on Defensive    Jerusalem Post   May 8, 2002

• The Saudi-Terror Subsidy
  by David Tell - The Weekly Standard     May 20, 2002

    In a bleak assessment on Wednesday, the person close to the crown prince said there was talk within the Saudi royal family and in Arab capitals of using the "oil weapon" against the United States, and demanding that the United States leave strategic military bases in the region. Such measures, he said, would be a "strategic debacle for the United States."

---

    "The last time the US made a concerted effort to improve energy efficiency – between 1979 and 1985 – GDP grew 16% while oil consumption fell 15%. Imports from the Persian Gulf fell 87%. Had this trend continued, the US would no longer need Gulf oil.
    "Unfortunately, President Ronald Reagan’s roll-back of car and light-truck fuel-efficiency standards in 1986 soon caused imports from the Gulf to double again. A few years later, the Gulf War cost the US more than it would have cost to save all the oil imported from the Gulf.
    "...The next big leap in energy will integrate greater efficiency with a shift from hydrocarbons to hydrogen."
   Amory Lovins, CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute
Old Problems, New Solutions  - Worldlink (UK)    July 16, 2002

"Use oil as a weapon in the battle with the enemy... The world understands the language of economy, so why do not Arabs use this language?"

Saddam Hussein, dictator of Iraq and secretary general, Baath Party     Reuters 

Saddam Hussein, Iraq's president, called again Monday for fellow Arab producers to back Baghdad's ban. He suggested that other nations cut output by 50 per cent with a complete ban on sales to the US and Israel.
Financial Times (UK)     April 22, 2002

    ...The person close to Abdullah pointed out that Saudi Arabia's recent assurances that it would use its surplus oil-producing capacity to blunt the effects of Saddam Hussein's 30-day suspension of Iraqi oil exports could quickly change.

If they do not receive oil
their factories will come to a halt.
This will shake the world "

    That Saudi pledge "was based on a certain set of assumptions, but if you change the assumptions, all bets are off," he said.

"If other Islamic countries join in this call, it will be a very strong instrument against America and Israel."

    "We would no longer say what Saddam said was an empty threat, because there come desperate times when you give the unthinkable a chance."
Saudi to Warn Bush of Rupture Over Israel Policy
by Patrick Tyler    New York Times    April 25, 2002

    The tragic terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and the subsequent military response, have raised thorny questions about U.S. energy policy. How does oil import dependence factor into the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia -- a major grievance of radical Islamic fundamentalists? How might continued heavy reliance on imported Middle Eastern petroleum complicate American efforts to eradicate terrorism from the region?
    ...Although the trend toward micropower and hydrogen was underway prior to September 11, these events -- and the difficulties encountered in responding to them -- illustrate the consequences of not engaging in a more concerted public policy effort to accelerate the introduction of these promising energy solutions. Indeed, they strengthen the case for an Apollo-scale effort to develop an infrastructure for producing, delivering, and using hydrogen. While there are costs in building a hydrogen economy, they must be weighed against the risk of continuing to rely on oil imports from the Middle East-which holds more than 65 percent of the world's proven petroleum reserves.    more

"A combination of a federal program for steadily increasing funding and active political leadership would transform the clean energy sector from a good idea to a pillar of the new economy. In particular, promising technologies such as fuel cells deserve special attention. Fuel cell development is attracting significant public and private funding and offers the promise of being a keystone technology for the ultimate transition from natural gas, petroleum, and coal energy to a renewable and hydrogen based energy economy."
Daniel M. Kammen
Professor of Energy and Society, University of California, Berkeley
Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab (RAEL)
Founding Director, Energy and Resoruces Group (ERG)
Letter to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney     February 16, 2001

    The oil states are often in the hands of rulers who are autocratic and corrupt. To Middle Eastern allies like Saudi Arabia and Egypt we whisper that they need to change. They in turn snap back that if we press for, and they effect, democracy too rapidly, the alternative might be worse: extremist Islamic theocracies of the bin Laden ilk. We in turn murmur that if they don't reform, the result may be extremist Islamic theocracies anyway.
    And while this gentle dialogue goes on, the oil continues to be pumped and to flow. The US, with only 5 percent of the world's population, guzzles 25 percent of the world's oil. Wouldn't US problems be solved then by Americans easing their dependence on Middle Eastern oil, perhaps eliminating such dependence altogether? Ideally, yes.
    In this regard, the Bush administration took a significant step last week with a plan to power the cars of the future with hydrogen-based fuel cells. Fuel cells drawing hydrogen and oxygen from the air, if successfully developed, could ultimately replace the internal combustion engine, thus sharply reducing US use of oil for gasoline production.

Push More Vigorously for Mideast Democracy
by John Hughes - Christian Science Monitor     January 16, 2002

"Although President Bush has made reduced dependence on foreign oil a national priority, few people know that the U.S. owns only three percent of the known oil reserves. This means we will never be able to supply all our own oil, and this threatens our economic and national security."
Nancy Hazard, Director of the Tour de Sol
New Fuel-Efficient Cars Offer National Security     January 4, 2001

"A new generation of policymakers evidently believes that America's sole energy security problem is imported oil, and that any domestic supply that can replace it will improve energy security. In this sincere but misguided belief, Federal energy policy continues to promote the most centralized, unforgiving, and vulnerable sources and infrastructures, while ignoring or suppressing the more efficient, diverse, dispersed, localized, and renewable options that could in time make major supply failures impossible by design. At present, the Department of Energy, apparently unwittingly but quite effectively, is undercutting the antiterrorist mission of the Department of Defense."
Amory and Hunter Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security

Where Do We Go After ANWR?
"How casually people dismiss ANWR’s value. Using the USGS estimate of 10 billion barrels for the mean recoverable oil at ANWR, the current value (@$30/barrel) is $30 x 10 billion = $300 billion or $300,000 million. Hardly an insignificant amount. This could fund U.S. Social Security/Medicare for all Americans or provide money to fight foreign wars for other nations’ oil fields." [emphasis CHBC]
The Oilman's Column #7
by L.F. Ivanhoe - Hubbert Center Newsletter 2001/2-1
Invading Other Countries to Seize Oil Fields Is An Energy Policy? 
Isn't There a Better Idea?
See  Hydrogen Politics

The Wilderness Society Endorses Hydrogen Energy
September 28, 2000      U.S. Newswire

The only way out of our current dilemma and the only way for the US to achieve energy independence is to invest in energy efficient new technologies, become less reliant on oil, and embrace energy conservation, energy alternatives such as hydrogen, and renewables such as wind and solar.

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