We’re already doing it. The Saudis are very worried that oil above a certain price will make coal gasification, oil/tar sands and oil shale in North America economically competitive with pumped oil while being a far, far more reliable and, from a balance of payments perspective, superior source of energy.
The last thing the Saudis want is a free market for energy because that will get them killed. Only the Democratic Party’s adversion to, and imposition of legal obstacles to, domestic and Canadian alternatives to pumped oil has kept that from happening.
So they see the escalating price of oil demolishing the Democratic Party’s obstacles to a free energy market, and are starting to ramp up their own production to avoid the catastrophe they see coming.
But if we really want to scare the Arab oil producers, we need only talk about fairness to their Shiite minorities.
