Why OPEC Won’t Turn Off the Oil

President Bush had barely finished explaining how his plan to spend less than a billion in new money would end U.S. addiction to Middle Eastern oil before Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC fired back.

If the U.S. reduced its dependence on Middle Eastern oil, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would be forced, with deep sorrow certainly, to abandon plans to invest billions in developing new supplies of oil.

President Bush’s plan to reduce U.S. demand for Middle Eastern oil would result, producers warned, in a global crisis in oil supply.

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