Between the world economy and this business, nothing is going well:
Why Is Bush Helping Saudi Arabia Build Nukes?
By EDWARD J. MARKEY
June 10, 2008; Page A15
Here's a quick geopolitical quiz: What country is three times the size
of Texas and has more than 300 days of blazing sun a year? What
country has the world's largest oil reserves resting below miles upon
miles of sand? And what country is being given nuclear power, not
solar, by President George W. Bush, even when the mere assumption of
nuclear possession in its region has been known to provoke pre-emptive
air strikes, even wars?
If you answered Saudi Arabia to all of these questions, you're right.
Last month, while the American people were becoming the personal ATMs
of the Organization of the Petroleum Ex****ting Countries, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice was in Saudi Arabia signing away an even more
valuable gift: nuclear technology. In a ceremony little-noticed in
this country, Ms. Rice volunteered the U.S. to assist Saudi Arabia in
developing nuclear reactors, training nuclear engineers, and
constructing nuclear infrastructure. While oil breaks records at $130
per barrel or more, the American consumer is footing the bill for
Saudi Arabia's nuclear ambitions.
Saudi Arabia has poured money into developing its vast reserves of
natural gas for domestic electricity production. It continues to
invest in a national gas trans****tation pipeline and stepped-up
exploration, building a solid foundation for domestic energy
production that could meet its electricity needs for many decades.
Nuclear energy, on the other hand, would require enormous investments
in new infrastructure by a country with zero expertise in this complex
technology.
Have Ms. Rice, Mr. Bush or Saudi leaders looked skyward? The Saudi
desert is under almost constant sun****ne. If Mr. Bush wanted to help
his friends in Riyadh diversify their energy ****tfolio, he should have
offered solar panels, not nuclear plants.
Saudi Arabia's interest in nuclear technology can only be explained by
the dangerous politics of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, a champion
and kingpin of the Sunni Arab world, is deeply threatened by the rise
of ****ite-ruled Iran.
The two countries watch each other warily over the waters of the
Persian Gulf, buying arms and waging war by proxy in Lebanon and Iraq.
An Iranian nuclear weapon would radically alter the region's balance
of power, and could prove to be the match that lights the tinderbox.
By signing this agreement with the U.S., Saudi Arabia is warning Iran
that two can play the nuclear game.
In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "[Iran is] already sitting
on an awful lot of oil and gas. No one can figure why they need
nuclear, as well, to generate energy." Mr. Cheney got it right about
Iran. But a potential Saudi nuclear program is just as suspicious. For
a country with so much oil, gas and solar potential, im****ting
expensive and dangerous nuclear power makes no economic sense.
The Bush administration argues that Saudi Arabia can not be compared
to Iran, because Riyadh said it won't develop uranium enrichment or
spent-fuel reprocessing, the two most dangerous nuclear technologies.
At a recent hearing before my Select Committee on Energy Independence
and Global Warming, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman shrugged off
concerns about potential Saudi misuse of nuclear assistance for a
weapons program, saying simply: "I presume that the president has a
good deal of confidence in the King and in the leader****p of Saudi
Arabia."
That's not good enough. We would do well to remember that it was the
U.S. who provided the original nuclear assistance to Iran under the
Atoms for Peace program, before Iran's monarch was overthrown in the
1979 Islamic Revolution. Such an uprising in Saudi Arabia today could
be at least as damaging to U.S. security.
We've long known that America's addiction to oil pays for the spread
of extremism. If this Bush nuclear deal moves forward, Saudi Arabia's
petrodollars could flow to the dangerous expansion of nuclear
technologies in the most volatile region of the world.
While the scorching Saudi Arabian sun heats sand dunes instead of
powering photovoltaic panels, millions of Americans will fork over $4
a gallon without realizing that their gas tank is fueling a nascent
nuclear arms race.
Rep. Markey (D., Mass.) is chairman of the Select Committee on Energy
Independence and Global Warming.
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