[The new Best Friends of the Sierra Club. Eco-Fascists, anyone?]
Sounds kind of strange to you?
It sounded kind of strange to me.
Although, it would be a “given” that the Sierra Club would oppose Keystone XL pipeline, which would help to make the US even more independent from Blood Oil and Conflict Oil directly from the Middle East and other trouble nations.
From the WashingtonFreeBeacon.com:
Sierra Club: Saudi Arabia ‘Our Best Ally’ in Keystone Fight
by Lachlan Markay
Leading environmentalist group heaps praise on Arab monarchy’s attempt to undermine U.S. oil production.
Saudi Arabia’s efforts to “drown” American energy producers make the oil-rich theocracy a crucial ally of the environmentalist movement, according to a leading green group.
The House of Saud, the kingdom’s royal family, is “our best ally in the fight against Keystone XL,” according to Paul Rauber, the senior editor of Sierra, the bi-monthly magazine published by the Sierra Club, a leading environmentalist group.
President Barack Obama has threatened to veto legislation expediting approval of the pipeline. However, Rauber said that the government of Saudi Arabia has done more to scuttle Keystone.
“Environmentalists are depending on President Barack Obama’s veto pen to block the project—at least until the State Department issues its final ruling in the matter,” Rauber wrote. “But we have another, even more potent ally in the fight: the House of Saud.”
As a leading member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Saudi Arabia has strongly opposed cuts in production that would buoy the plummeting price of crude oil.
The idea is to make oil so cheap that American producers can’t extract it economically. The current surge in U.S. oil production is a result of expensive extraction techniques—hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling—that could be cost-prohibitive if oil prices fall much further.
According to Rauber, OPEC’s efforts may also render the Keystone pipeline moot by forcing prices too low for the expensive refining process of heavy Canadian “oil sands” crude.
We already know that Russia, Iran and Venezuela are claiming that the drop in global oil prices are the result of a vast American conspiracy. Russia, Iran and Venezuela depend mightily on the profits from oil sales and need it to keep their countries functioning and keep their current leaders in power. Gwynne Dyer in Hurriet of Turkey calls this strategy “fiendishly clever” on the part of the US.
There’s one problem. Russia, Iran and Venezuela aren’t glimpsing the big picture. And Saudi Arabia is big enough, wealthy enough and canny enough to play the Long Game.
The Long Game is this: Saudi Arabia hasn’t slowed oil production on its end for a very important reason. The US is now the world’s leading producer of oil and could become even bigger. Fracking was the difference. But to make fracking possible, oil has to come in at roughly $85 a barrel in order to make the investment worthy. Fracking is complicated and expensive.
All Saudi Arabia has to do, to keep a chokehold on fracking, is not turn the faucet off or down. Keep up production. Oil falls below $85 and fracking becomes unprofitable for companies in the US. Workers have already been laid off and some wells shut down.
The winner? Saudi Arabia. They can afford to sit while a few billion dollars percolate.
And? Oh yeah. That cheap oil?
Gonna go up again. Mark my words.
In the meantime: a tip of the fedora to the good, old Sierra Club.
Fucktards.
BZ
