Saudi Arabia's efforts to "drown" American oil producers make it a key ally of U.S. environmentalists working to block U.S. energy projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, according to the Sierra Club.
The group's bi-monthly magazine, "Sierra," ran an article with a headline suggesting that the Saudi royal family is "our best ally in the fight against Keystone XL,"
the Washington Free Beacon reported.
President Barack Obama has won praise from environmentalists for threatening to veto congressional legislation authorizing Keystone which has passed both Houses of Congress.
But Paul Rauber, a senior editor with Sierra, wrote that the Saudi government has done even more to kill Keystone.
"Environmentalists are depending on President Barack Obama's veto pen to block the project – at least until the State Department issues its final ruling in the matter,"
Rauber wrote. "But we have another, even more potent ally in the fight: the House of Saud."
As a leading member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Riyadh has fought against production cuts that would stabilize falling crude oil prices.
According to Rauber, OPEC’s efforts could undermine the economic case for the Keystone pipeline by driving prices so low that it doesn't make economic sense to invest in expensive refining projects utilizing Canadian "oil sands" crude.
"Rather than cutting back production in order to stabilize oil prices, the world’s largest oil producer [Saudi Arabia] is keeping its petroleum taps wide open, hoping to drown upstart competitors in Canada, North Dakota, and Russia in a sea of cheap oil," Rauber wrote.
Thanks in large part to fracking-induced production, the United States is now the world's largest oil producer. Saudi Arabia "hopes to reverse that trend," the Free Beacon observed.
Rauber endorsed the strategy, which he said is "sure to stifle new production."
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