April 15, 2005

Interesting Angle on Busting OPEC

I was just emailing my previous post to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, and I spotted a link on his home page to this very interesting report. It turns out 6 countries that are members of OPEC (Kuwait, Venezuela, Qatar, Indonesia, UAE and Nigeria) are also members of the World Trade Orgranization—and the WTO forbids export quotas, such as those used by OPEC to control prices.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) consists of 11 of the world’s largest oil producing nations, 1 producing slightly more than 1/3 of the world’s oil, with 75% of the known reserves. By negotiating among themselves, OPEC sets export quotas for each of its member nations, and is able to exercise a great deal of control over the international price of oil.

Six of these countries, 2 representing half of OPEC’s production, are members of the WTO, and two more 3 are seeking admission. Under the Uruguay Round Agreements, countries are not permitted to impose export quotas.

OPEC’s price manipulation has been a major factor in the recent run-up in gas prices, which have now averaged around $2 per gallon for the last two months.

[.....]

Conclusion

OPEC’s practices are in violation of WTO rules prohibiting quantitative restrictions on exports. Although there are exceptions that OPEC could attempt to cite, the applicability of these exceptions is tenuous. A WTO case against the six WTO members of OPEC could have immediate, large and lasting benefits to the US consumer and economy by driving down oil and gas prices.

I like it that Lautenberg is looking for ways to put pressure on OPEC. But I question whether countries can be forced to pump the oil out of the ground as fast as the world demands it—which would be infinitely fast. It may even be in the interests of conserving oil supplies to have some controls on the speed at which it is consumed.

Congress Justifies Its Existence By Chipping Away at Our Freedom

We’ve got a serious problem in this country in which we have all these legislative bodies that have no job other than to make new laws, so to justify their existence, they have to constantly be putting new restrictions on what we can and can’t do. They are constantly ordering the rest of us around:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Addressing the growing controversy over U.S. pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control or emergency contraceptives, several lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a bill that would require pharmacies to fill all prescriptions.

Led by New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg and New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, both Democrats, the bill would require all pharmacies to fill prescriptions including birth control pills and the so-called morning after pill. The bill applies to pharmacies, not to an individual pharmacist.

“We are here to tell the right-wing that enough is absolutely enough,” Maloney told supporters near the Capitol.

You know what? If someone wants people to have birth control, they can open their own store. Or they can rely on the power of Capitalism, which says that if people want birth control, the pharmacy that doesn’t sell it loses business to the pharmacy that does. But ordering pharmacists to sell a product by law? That’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

This is a free country. But it’s got to get less free every day if Federal and State Congresses have to justify their existences by making up new ways all the time to tell the rest of us what we can’t do and what we have to do.

You can email New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg and New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney using these links:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg
Rep. Carolyn Maloney

Update. From Say Anything:

Should we require that Muslim grocers sell pork chops? Can I require that my corner gas station carry condoms for me? To, you know, uphold my reproductive rights?

Of course not. Those are silly propositions. And so is this one.

Cats versus Roomba: Roombrilliant!

(via GeekPress. )

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