Oil
ASP in the News | April 23 – 28
Financial Express (4/27) speaks with Parag Khanna about the decline of US influence
The Boston Globe (4/27) quotes Flynt Leverett on the dangerous alliances oil producers and despots.
The Tory Conservative (4/27) features Afshin Molavi's book, Persian Pilgrimages.
MWC News (4/25) discusses prospects for a Palestinian state with Ghaith al-Omari.
The Jewish Week (4/23) asks Daniel Levy about the Presidential candidates' Middle East Policies.
From Our Foreign Bureaus: Bar Codes in Ghana
BAR CODES: Ghana considers adding bar codes to its ballots to protect against errors and fraud.
TAIWAN REFERENDUM DIDN'T MEASURE UP: Foreign observers took a hard look at procedures in the Taiwanese referenda on joining the U.N., and didn't like what they saw.
NO VOTE ON OIL PIPELINE: The Bulgarian opposition has blocked an effort to let Bulgarians vote on whether to establish an oil pipeline. The pipeline has been passed by Parliament. The winner? Vladimir Putin. Russia can use the pipeline to send its oil from the Black Sea to the Aegean.
JOINING THE IRISH? Czech communists are proposing a national referendum of the Lisbon Treaty.
MONKS BARRED FROM BALLOT: Burmese monks won't be able to vote in their country's constitutional referendum, an election that clearly won't meet any common sense standard of fairness.
$110 Crude Goodbye for Man Who Said Gas Costs $10.07 a Gallon
Crude oil hit $110 today and it was an ironic farewell to Milton Copulos, late of the National Defense Council Foundation, who led a campaign to promote the "true" costs of gasoline over the past few years. I spoke with Milt in January and he gave me his latest estimate: We pay an extra $10.07 for every gallon we buy.
First, let me say that I never quite knew whether to trust his numbers -- after all, there really aren't any good numbers for the externalities of gas. But I found his background -- in defense, the Heritage Foundation, and then alternative fuels -- intriguing, provocative and a good starting place for trying to figure out how much a gallon of gas really costs us. (Milt also offered a heck of an interview, ranging through housing stock in China to military plans to turn garbage into fuel, to his children, his wife, with time for a short primer on flash pyrolosis.)
Here's how he broke it the cost of of a gallon of gas:
WEDNESDAY ROUND-UP: There Will Be Blood
The best evidence of this is in Arkansas, where politicians of both parties are competing to raise the severance tax. Gov. Mike Beebe is using the threat of a ballot initiative -- his aides say he is drafting one -- to demand that the severance tax on natural gas be raised. He wants the funds used to fix state highways. (Under severance taxes, states typically tax the market value of natural gas or oil at the time of extraction).
$100 for the Oil/How Much for the Frustration?
Everyone's trying to forecast how Americans will react to oil at $104 a barrel. Yeah, yeah, cutting back on gas use, worried financial markets... But the overall mood is a defiant shrug, typified by the president, who told a renewable energy conference today that Americans have to “get off oil,” right after mentioning that he’d shown up in a motorcade of twenty cars. It’s fair to say that with neither a plan nor collective will to change, Americans will stay in oil’s motorcade.
However, while we’re watching ourselves, another possibly very significant conflict is forming in two of the most important oil-producing countries. After years of rising oil prices and escalating nationalist rhetoric, the poor in Venezuela and Iran are not getting what they were promised -- according to two separate but strikingly similar reports. Their reaction to rising prices, and increasing sense of disenfranchisement and disappointment, may ultimately force Americans out of the motorcade.
In Foreign Affairs, Francisco Rodriguez writes a fascinating and thoughtful article about Chavez’s failure to deliver oil money to the poor, despite years of talking and spending.
Rodriguez writes:
Oil Reaches $100 a Barrel
Amid heightened inflation concerns, oil reached $100.10 a barrel yesterday due to a variety of causes. According to an analyst at Goldman Sachs, “Economic growth concerns have been trumped by long-term structural supply issues.”
Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank, believes the main driver is "the huge volumes of money moving into oil and other commodities." Analysts at Barclays Capital say instability in Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria, also pushed prices higher.
Bloomberg – Oil Falls From $100 Record on Speculation U.S. Stockpiles Grew
Wall Street Journal – Weakening Demand? Oil Still Passes $100
Global Insight – Oil Prices Spike Back to Record Levels
European Central Bank – Assessing the Factors Behind Oil Price Changes
Cambridge Energy Research Associates – $100 Oil: Moving Deeper Into Uncharted Territory
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