A substantial decrease in the money we send to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries is one of the advantages we can look forward to in the decades to come if the federal government continues on its path toward adopting climate-change and conservation policies.
We could eventually chop billions of dollars every year from our expenditures on Middle Eastern oil and use those savings to augment our own energy infrastructure to produce more power from clean sources such as solar, wind and geothermal.
Saudi Arabia, however, doesn’t see it that way. It says the United States and other wealthy countries that realize savings from buying less Middle Eastern oil should pay compensation to the region, so its countries would not see a decrease in their quality of life.
The New York Times this week quoted the country’s chief climate-change negotiator, who wrote in an e-mail: “Assisting us oil-producing countries in achieving economic diversification is very crucial for us through direct foreign investments, technology transfer, insurance and funding.”
That message should not elicit sympathy from any of the Middle East’s oil customers. One reason is that oil-producing nations in the Middle East have been manipulating their prices for years, enriching themselves at the world’s expense.
Another reason is that Middle Eastern countries will not suffer a loss of customers anytime soon. They will have plenty of time to diversify their economies, with their own money, before they suffer any really significant drop in oil revenue.
Saudi Arabia has pushed this absurd argument for years and plans to push it again at the international climate-change summit in December. What should be discussed at that summit, instead, is providing financial aid to poor countries that will really need it as the effects of climate change begin making them even more desperate.
But compensation for Saudi Arabia? As one climate-change expert told the Times: “It is like the tobacco industry asking for compensation for lost revenues as part of a settlement to address the health risks of smoking.”
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