Posted on 12/01/2005 4:20:33 PM PST by Sonny M
The United States and China should have a joint energy research and development program, a senior US Senator said, warning that the two powers could go to war in their insatiable quest for depleting foreign energy supplies.
"We are heading towards two thirds by each country on dependence on foreign oil. Let's recognize this problem before it becomes an intense competition which can actually lead to military conflict," said Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic Senator from Connecticut.
"Let's do it by each trying to diversify to clean fuels, alternative fuels, hybrids, electric plug ins," he told reporters after speaking at a forum "China-US energy policies: A choice of cooperation or collision?."
Lieberman, a member of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, cited the formal US-China dialogue process and said, "We ought to add joint energy research and development projects to that dialogue and then begin to see if we can work together."
He noted that President George W. Bush's administration had begun talking to the Chinese authorities on the energy issue but added however that more serious attention should be given to the pressing problem.
"What I am saying is: it needs to be urgent, it needs to be expanded. This is one of those situations where if you step back, you see that China and the US are in a very similar positions in terms of our dependence on foreign oil and you can see conflict coming between us for the same sources of oil.
"Why not see it and avoid by cooperative action," he said.
The voracious appetite of the United States and China to devour enough energy to feed their growing economies is seen by analysts as a key reason behind recent sky-high oil prices.
The US and China now represent one third of total global oil consumption.
Their combined crude demand for 2005 is forecast at 28 million barrels per day, out of a total worldwide demand of 84.3 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency.
The two countries' total oil consumption was estimated to rise by 2.7 percent in 2005, compared with the previous year -- an increase of 740,000 barrels per day.
That means Chinese and US demand for oil accounts for 42 percent of the total anticipated 2.2-percent growth in global oil demand in 2005.
A net importer of oil for the past decade, China last year overtook Japan as second largest net importer of oil after the United States.
On claims by some groups that the United States could try to dampen China's bid to acquire more oil from the open market, Lieberman said this was not possible under normal market conditions.
"The problem is if competition between us continues, each country will be paying an enormous amount of money to buy the oil and again, I worry that in a crisis that could lead to hostilities between us," he said.
Asked what would be the "trigger point," Lieberman said, "We know that war has been been fought over natural resources and we ought to be wiser and avoid that in the interest of the Chinese people, the American people and the world."
China is already working on developing nuclear power plants (of the pebble bed variety, i.e. no meltdown and totally safe), so they probably have no incentive to even take this seriously.
While Holy Joe is looking at every alternative fuel but Nuke, China is looking at nuke power first.
Joe Lieberman also opposes drilling in ANWR.
I'd prefer we start cutting the red tape and the regulations and let the private sector build and develop modern day nuclear power plants.
need to develope an engine that runs on communists
Senators get paid too much to do to little (apart from draining the treasury) and seem to suffer no penalty at all for embarassing the entire country by being such f***ing idiots. These people answer to no one, including the voters. Quite frankly, if Osama had succeed in demolishing half of the capital building with a 747, I don't think I would have been very unhappy about it.
From the same people who want to let China into the International Space Station project (They already have been invited).
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