Iran and Syria: Using Vast Oil Profits — For What Purposes?
Sorry, we made an error and sent you this email with a link to the wrong article. It’s corrected below…..
I’m anything but an expert on the Middle East, but this can’t be good news: Iran and Syria signing a win-win agreement based on $3.6 billion in oil. When I see countries with criminally insane governments getting rich off oil, it engenders a range of thoughts and emotions – none of them positive. Obviously, I’m afraid of the implications in terms of human rights violations and the ever-growing prospect of nuclear war. But I’m also angry that oil is the de facto energy/transportation policy of my beloved nation.
How is it possible that our country borrows half a billion dollars a day and uses it to empower the world’s most dangerous people? Does it make sense that we’re driving up the national debt while actively eroding our security? Of course not. But as long as the oil companies essentially own our Congress, it’s hard to imagine any change here.
I remember a talk that Ed Rendell, ex-governor of Pennsylvania, delivered to a packed house at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum, during which he spoke about the movement to alternative fuels and renewable energy, and then explained precisely why it’s not happening. According to Rendell: “There are too many special interests arrayed against it. Over 90% of Democrat voters are in favor of Congress passing legislation that prioritizes clean energy. In fact, over 75% of Republican voters are in favor of the exact same thing. Clearly, the will of the American people is being frustrated by special interests.”
“Together, we can do this,” Rendell fairly bellowed in summary. “But we can’t do it inside the Beltway. The lobbyists are raising campaign money for our senators and representatives in Washington seven days a week. It never stops. It never stops. There are fund-raisers happening literally every night. If change is going to happen, it needs to take place in hometown America. Your leaders have to hear it from you.”
For what it’s worth, I urge you to take Mr. Rendell up on his advice: tell your leaders that they need to be responsive to the will of the people, not their paymasters.
Our oil $$ is propping up oppressive governments to the detriment of their subjects.
To give me a better understanding of the people who live in that part of the world, I read the Koran a few years ago. Now I am studying the history of Islam. As near as I can tell, if all Muslims actually followed the dictates of Islam, that part of the world would be more peaceful and the people would be much better off.
I suggest that people limit their comments on people there until they have diligently studied Islam so that they will be in a better position to understand it and its followers.
True enough, but why restrict your comment to Muslims? ” If all Jews, Christians, etc. actually followed the dictates of their religion, the entire world would be more peaceful and the people would be much better off.
As for Craig’s article, it is one of his best, but regrettably it is another example of words wasted on addicts! The only hope for change in our system is for the Washington Modus operandi to exceed our country’s “crisis threshold”, and then the voters will act. Check out the track record of modern homo sapiens.
Actually, you’re right; I should have included Christians, Jews, etc.
Thanks for the link. I didn’t comment the first time you mentioned this, because the link was broken.
Both Iran and Syria are suffering from international trade embargoes, and they’ve now found a clever way to bypass that by trading with one another. It sucks, but it’s really a drop in the bucket for Iran. 3.6 billion equates to ~36 million bbls of crude. Currently, U.S. imposed trade restrictions are squeezing >1.5 million bbls/day from Iran’s normal trade; so this lessens their burden for a whopping 24 days. That won’t be enough of a breather to really change the mood of the country. Eventually Iran will have to break and open its labs to international inspectors, or the Arab spring will find its way into the heart of Tehran.
Iran’s inflation rate last year was 27%, and the year prior it was 21%. They’ve had to enact social policies which redistribute their oil money to the public in order to help tamp down social discord, so that now their gini coefficient (wealth inequality metric) is nearly identical to our own. In a year they will have greater wealth equality, and their wealth is dropping every year. This 3.6 billion is a burp for a nation that has dysentery… temporary relief in a prolonged state of extreme discomfort… It won’t save Iran.
As for Syria, well that administration is doomed, so it won’t really see the completion of this contract, though the next government will probably honor it just because they cannot tick off one of the regional powers right after their installation.
Overall, it’s not what we want to see, but it will have a very small impact on the arc of history in that region.
As for our own complicity in being a net-importing oil consumer: In 2005 and 2006 we had several weeks where we imported >14 million bbl/day, and by late 2008 we were still importing >12 million bbl/day. Our imports have fallen steadily – partly from a transition to more fuel efficient vehicles, partly from a rapid increase in natural gas liquids, and partly from a steady and rapid growth in U.S. based crude production… This year most weeks have seen ~6.0 – 7.6 million bbl/d of net imports.
By next year, our average imports may be as low as 5 million bbl/day, and by 2017-2018, we will be a net exporter. We are decoupling ourselves from being a dependent nation… Finally.