Free Pass

Why do the Saudis always get a “free pass”?

Two-thirds of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis. Osama bin Laden was the scion of a wealthy Saudi family. Yet, we invaded Afghanistan and later Iraq to avenge 9/11. Even after the “weapons of mass destruction” rationale proved false, most Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 not those nice people with all the oil in Riyadh who finally allowed women to drive a few years ago and who publicly behead criminals.

While the rest of the world (even Switzerland) is sanctioning Russia, the Saudis made the enormous sacrifice of increasing oil output by all of 400,000 barrels per day. Russia pumps about 10 million barrels per day so this is not exactly going to replace Russian oil in world markets. In fact, with oil prices up about $20 to more than $100 per barrel since Vlad invaded Ukraine, Russia gets a $200 million windfall every day. MBA students at Moscow University might conduct a case study on this. “Start a war. If it costs less than $200 million per day, you get a net profit from the oil market.”

The real winners are, of course, the Saudis. They pump about 40 million barrels per day so their windfall over the past week is $800 million per day. That ain’t chicken feed.

Who pays it? Everyone who drives a car, heats their home or flies on a plane. Renewable energy powering electric vehicles and heating our homes cannot come soon enough. Let Putin and the Saudis choke on their damn oil.

By Ed Dufton