U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio reintroduced two bills on January 31st intended to punish OPEC for slashing oil production levels by 1.5 million b/d from February 1st. DeFazio said that: “As a world power, we have leverage over OPEC members.
Why should we continue to support the oil barons that colluded to raise the price of oil and in turn hike up prices at the pump?” The Democratic congressman from Oregon reintroduced legislation from the previous year’s session that would require the president to lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against OPEC for restricting oil exports.
DeFazio also sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush on January 31st urging him to file a complaint with the WTO against OPEC for price fixing.
His second bill calls for U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf to pay 75 percent of the cost of U.S. military presence in the region since the Gulf War.
The cost has been estimated at $1.04 billion for fiscal year 2000, most of which goes toward enforcement of no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq.
The proposed legislation is unlikely to succeed, particularly given Bush’s desire to work with OPEC members and to persuade them to increase crude supplies.
Bush had said that: “The quickest impact on the price of crude oil will be to work with OPEC nations and to foster relations so that they may be convinced to open up their spigots to keep the pressure off prices.”
He added that: “One of the things we’re going to have to do is to start up a strong diplomatic effort to work with our friends in the Middle East to have an energy policy that is respectful to their friend here [the U.S.] and other democracies.”
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
