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US Vice-President Dick Cheney is still touring the region in the hope of gaining support for his more wacky ideas. Doubtless his visit to Saudi Arabia to have talks with King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz will have been received with the usual gracious Arab courtesy. But such receptions will not mask the fact that the message he carries is not the one Arabs want to hear. Cheney's national security adviser said the talks would be to discuss "a co-operative way forward" to stabilise oil prices. In simpler terms, Opec must pump more oil for America.
But Cheney, who is merely doing his master's bidding, has got it all the wrong way round. Instead of seeking greater oil production from the oil-producing countries, the US administration should be making deliberate and sustained efforts to reduce oil consumption in their own country. It is generally agreed that oil is not an indefinite resource and in due time, all global stocks will be exhausted. Current US policy, which in fact has been in force for many years, is to import most of its oil needs from other countries, while keeping in reserve its own vast stocks.
For the retail consumer, the artificially low prices (which they complain are too high anyway) do nothing to change the habits of a lifetime and use alternative - and less polluting - methods of transport. While Americans believe, as they do, that if they can afford the prices, then they can use as much as is desirable, then energy demand will always be high, with no incentive to curb consumption.
The US administration persists in believing oil prices are high due to an inadequate supply in the market. This is false thinking. Oil prices are high because of the instability in the Arab region causing speculators to drive prices up.
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