BIKE: Gimme or else!

[Roger Baker]

Its a novel concept; lawyers without borders as our answer to peak oil. 
If this fails, do we send shock troops of Washington lobbyists to the 
Persian Gulf? -- Roger

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<http://energybulletin.net/5368.html>

US lawmakers pass bill allowing lawsuits against oil cartels

by AFP

WASHINGTON : Dubbed "NOPEC", a bill passed by the US Senate Judiciary 
Committee would allow legal action to be taken against cartels such as 
OPEC, said Senator Patrick Leahy, one of the bill's co-sponsors.

  "The bill would allow the US Department of Justice and the Federal 
Trade Commission to file antitrust lawsuits against foreign states, 
such as members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries 
(OPEC), for price fixing and other anticompetitive activities," said 
the Democrat.

  "High oil import costs this year have affected all Americans in the 
form of record-high gasoline prices that continue to soar," said Leahy 
to justify the measure.

  The bill, just passed, would make it illegal for foreign states and 
their agents "to act collectively or in combination with any other 
foreign state ...or agent" to limit the production of oil, natural gas, 
or any other petroleum product, or fix the prices of such products.

  Legal action may be taken, the bill said, "when such action, 
combination, or collective action has a direct, substantial, and 
reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply, price, or 
distribution of oil, natural gas, or other petroleum product in the 
United States".

  World oil prices remained high Thursday, climbing 91 cents to close at 
51.13 dollars per barrel in New York. While below the record price set 
April 4 of 58.28 dollars a barrel, the price of gasoline at the pump in 
the United States have soared to an average record high of 2.5 dollars 
per gallon (3.8 liters).

  - AFP

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With OPEC pumping at near capacity, perhaps this bill is little more 
than an effort to make it look like 'something is being done' while 
implicitly placing the blame for high oil prices on OPEC rather than on 
depletion.
  -AF
  There is also an unspoken but implicit demand that other countries 
MUST supply the US with the maximum possible supply of resources, via 
the injunction against 'limiting supply'. How timely to have 'Gimme or 
else' entered into law. - LJ