(13.12.2022)
President Biden has urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production of oil and criticized the cartel harshly when it declines to do so—most recently on Dec. 4. But actions speak louder than words. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. has been acting as shadow member of the cartel.
(03.02.2023)
Now almost a month into the new session of Congress, lawmakers have yet to hear from administration officials about launching a coordinated review of the US-Saudi relationship, despite repeated statements over the past few months by the White House that congressional input would be key to such an assessment
(03.02.2023)
(27.12.2022)
Despite threats of „consequences“ made by the Biden administration during the run-up to US midterm elections in early November, no concrete actions have materialized.
One of the top potential measures, passage of the „Nopec“ antitrust legislation, has not advanced, after quietly failing to be included in a targeted bill this month.
(13.12.2022)
President Biden has urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production of oil and criticized the cartel harshly when it declines to do so—most recently on Dec. 4. But actions speak louder than words. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. has been acting as shadow member of the cartel.
(30.11.2022)
The idea was first put forth back in 2000, when antitrust lawyer Seth Bloom wrote the NOPEC Act. It stands for No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels. The law would explicitly permit the US government to pursue price-fixing claims against oil-producing countries.
(October 21, 2022)
Schneider is a co-chair of the Abraham Accords Caucus, as well as a lead sponsor of the DEFEND Act, which seeks to promote the creation of an integrated Middle East air-defense infrastructure, potentially including both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), also an Abraham Accords Caucus co-chair and lead DEFEND Act sponsor, raised concerns that the White House was “disrupting… momentum” toward integrated air defense by postponing a United States-Gulf Coordination Council meeting focused on the issue following the oil production cut announcement.
(30.11.2022)
The idea was first put forth back in 2000, when antitrust lawyer Seth Bloom wrote the NOPEC Act. It stands for No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels. The law would explicitly permit the US government to pursue price-fixing claims against oil-producing countries.
(17.10.2022)
(05.10.2022)
But several attempts to pass NOPEC over more than two decades have long worried OPEC‘s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, leading Riyadh to lobby hard every time a version of the bill has come up.
With the Senate Judiciary Committee passing the bill in May, it needs to pass the full Senate and House and be signed by the president to become law.
(05.10.2022)
But several attempts to pass NOPEC over more than two decades have long worried OPEC‘s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, leading Riyadh to lobby hard every time a version of the bill has come up.
With the Senate Judiciary Committee passing the bill in May, it needs to pass the full Senate and House and be signed by the president to become law.
(October 11, 2022)
This decision stands in stark contrast to the careful, muted responses of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian President Narendra Modi to Putin’s accelerating aggression in Eastern Europe and mounting threats to unleash nuclear war on the continent. Apart from buying Russian oil (at major discounts, most recently about $25 below Brent prices), neither the Chinese nor the Indians have offered Putin much in the way of diplomatic cover, military materiel or other direct substantive support since the earliest weeks of the illegal Russian invasion.
(October 21, 2022)
Schneider is a co-chair of the Abraham Accords Caucus, as well as a lead sponsor of the DEFEND Act, which seeks to promote the creation of an integrated Middle East air-defense infrastructure, potentially including both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), also an Abraham Accords Caucus co-chair and lead DEFEND Act sponsor, raised concerns that the White House was “disrupting… momentum” toward integrated air defense by postponing a United States-Gulf Coordination Council meeting focused on the issue following the oil production cut announcement.
(05.10.2022)
But several attempts to pass NOPEC over more than two decades have long worried OPEC‘s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, leading Riyadh to lobby hard every time a version of the bill has come up.
With the Senate Judiciary Committee passing the bill in May, it needs to pass the full Senate and House and be signed by the president to become law.
(20.10.2022)
(October 21, 2022)
Schneider is a co-chair of the Abraham Accords Caucus, as well as a lead sponsor of the DEFEND Act, which seeks to promote the creation of an integrated Middle East air-defense infrastructure, potentially including both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), also an Abraham Accords Caucus co-chair and lead DEFEND Act sponsor, raised concerns that the White House was “disrupting… momentum” toward integrated air defense by postponing a United States-Gulf Coordination Council meeting focused on the issue following the oil production cut announcement.
(Oct. 24, 2022)
If the United States follows through on its threats, the Biden administration would be a true maverick in Middle East policy, because no other administration — Republican or Democratic — has ever retaliated against Saudi Arabia in any serious manner for its oil policies.
(17.10.2022)
(19.10.2022)
The legislation could be debated by lawmakers after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
(17.10.2022)
Riyadh’s alignment with Russia definitively started during that War and was irrevocably strengthened when Moscow agreed to support then-beleaguered Saudi Arabia and OPEC in their first post-Oil Price War production announcement at the end of 2016, forming ‘OPEC+’ (‘plus’ Russia) in the process. And Saudi Arabia’s move towards the autocracies of the East, with which its own autocracy is naturally aligned, was definitively concluded with China when Beijing allowed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) to save face, and probably his eventual succession to the kingship as well, by offering to privately buy in 2017 all five percent of his disastrously conceived initial public offering of Saudi Aramco. Last week’s Saudi-led shock two million barrels per day (bpd) collective crude oil production cuts shows that MbS personally has nothing but contempt for the U.S., so it is little wonder that key figures in the West Wing of the White House are taking it so personally.
(05.10.2022)
But several attempts to pass NOPEC over more than two decades have long worried OPEC‘s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, leading Riyadh to lobby hard every time a version of the bill has come up.
With the Senate Judiciary Committee passing the bill in May, it needs to pass the full Senate and House and be signed by the president to become law.
(October 12, 2022)
There appears to be plenty of room for persuasion on the issue: Over a third of voters said they didn’t know or had no opinion on the topic.
(17 Nov 2021)
The Biden-Spetcer letter explored two ways in which the two senators thought the US government could sue the cartel, one in US federal court and another one in, be prepared for it, the International Court of Justice at the Hague. The record is here:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2000-03-30/pdf/CREC-2000-03-30.pdf
Another piece of trivia-history. In 2007, then Senator Biden was a ‚co-sponsor‘ of NOPEC legislation in the Senate (via an amendment). Despite co-sponsoring the amendment, Biden later „did not vote“ for it (abstention). The record is here:
https://www.congress.gov/110/crec/2007/06/14/CREC-2007-06-14.pdf
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently floated using the legislation, known as “NOPEC,” as one way to respond to the group, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have gone even further, saying that the decision by the Saudi-led group to reduce production by 2 million barrels a day is a reason to significantly shift relations with Riyadh.