EU: Cut Back Oil Use

The European Union on Friday called on other major oil-consuming regions to cut back on the amount of energy they use as oil supplies face a tight squeeze that has sent prices soaring.

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs told U.S. and Japanese officials that energy efficiency was “one of the most cost-effective short-term responses” to surging prices, said his spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny.
“Oil-consuming countries also need to take action to deal with the tight fundamentals,” Tarradellas Espuny said. “We must strengthen our efforts to improve energy efficiency and to promote alternative energy sources.”

Oil prices rose overnight, the fastest gain in over three weeks, on word that U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Congress had agreed a spending package to stimulate the slowing American economy _ that will likely boost U.S. thirst for oil.

The EU’s energy chief held a conference call with U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Japan Economy Minister Hiroko Ota in Davos, Switzerland, to say that Europe was seriously concerned about recent price hikes.

Sustained high prices “could result in a slowing of global economic growth, damaging developed, developing and oil-producing countries,” Tarradellas Espuny reported Piebalgs as saying.

Piebalgs blamed many short-term factors for the price hikes _ inventory levels, geopolitical tensions, winter demand and a flow of investment money _ but also warned that transport was too dependent on oil. The EU is trying to encourage cars and trucks to burn more biofuel.

Houston Chronicle