SocraticGadfly: Pander alert – Hillary on OPEC and WTO

May 05, 2008

Pander alert – Hillary on OPEC and WTO

So, now Hillary Clinton wants to break up OPEC. And to do it via the World Trade Organization.

Like Shakespeare, let’s count the ways that’s wrong.

First, it assumes we could do it.

Second, doing it via a World Trade Organization complaint assumes the WTO would
A. See a valid case;
B. Be able to do something;
C. Actually do something.

All of those aren’t likely, because …

OPEC is OPEC and NOT OPIC. We’re the ones importing oil, in other words, OPEC is in the export business.

Is OPEC charging a tariff? No. Putting trade restrictions on oil (or other products) coming into their countries? No. (Other than they might eventually crack to hard-line pressure and start denominating oil in euros.)

Third, she believes OPEC is actually a cartel in the sense of being a successful one. She knows better; she knows that OPEC members have cheated on pumping quotas for decades.

Fourth, why wasn’t the Slickster doing more to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when crude was $10 a barrel? People laughed at Preznit Bush a couple of years ago, but $70/bbl oil in the reserve was cheaper than $120/bbl.

That said, it’s clear he and Tricky Dick Jr. Cheney, aka Uncle Fester, have known the gig was up on Peak Oil for some time, and refused to tell that to the public. THAT is why Bushie started topping off the SPR.

Which gets to…

Fifth, Hillary refusing to talk about Peak Oil.

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