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U.S. Seeks Alternative Fuel Sources
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee discussed ending the country's energy dependence last week. It was concluded in the hearings that the United States will be unable to have a proper policy toward the major hydrocarbon-exporting countries, including Russia, until it finds alternative energy sources. Committee members calculated that the manufacture of ethanol from reeds could reduce oil consumption in the United States by 20 percent in the next ten years and reduce imports from hostile Venezuela by that much. A similar program is being developed in Brazil, where U.S. President George W. Bush recently visited.
Georgian parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze was in Washington last week as well. She told an audience at the Kennedy Center that Russia is trying to preserve its monopoly on natural gas and oil in the former Soviet Union and also spoke about the need for alternative energy sources in Europe and the CIS.
“The Administration talks a great game about spreading democracy and promoting human rights abroad,” said California Democrat Tom Lantos, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, “yet refuses to pressure Moscow to reverse its brutal crackdown on political dissent. Is it because we have a financial stake in the reliability of the Russian oil supply, and its guarantee by the state? As long as Russia uses its energy sector as a foreign policy instrument, it will continue to enjoy the upper hand.”
Venezuela reacted quickly to the hearings. That country's finance minister, Rodrigo Cabezas, stated that Venezuelan oil exports would not be adversely affected if the U.S. curtailed its imports by using ethanol. The White House has not reacted to the hearings yet. Sources say that the Bush administration is unhappy about talk of the formation of a natural gas “OPEC” involving Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Algeria and Qatar, as well as about the Russian gas contract with Hungary and Moscow's construction of the oil pipeline to link Bulgaria and Greece.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 26, 2007
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