Likewise , India's Energy solution lies in Partnering Sovereign Oxom--
They can buy all the energy they need-and not merely steal a little here-steal a little there.
mm
From: Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Assam] NY Times Editorial
Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:50:12 -0600
>Editorial
> India, Oil and Nuclear Weapons
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>Published: February 19, 2006
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>
>Exploding at the seams with building, investment and trade, India can
>hardly keep up with itself. Airplanes coming into Delhi and Mumbai
>routinely end up circling the airports for hours, wasting precious
>jet fuel, because there are not enough runways or airport gates. City
>streets originally built for two lanes of traffic are teeming with
>four and sometimes five lanes of cars, auto-rickshaws, mopeds, buses
>and trucks. This energy-guzzling congestion will only become worse as
>India continues producing fairly high-quality goods and services at
>lower and lower prices - from automobiles that cost only $2,500 to
>low-budget airline flights for $50.
>
>India's president, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, sounded exactly like
>President Bush when he told the Asiatic Society in Manila earlier
>this month that energy independence must be India's highest priority.
>"We must be determined to achieve this within the next 25 years, that
>is, by the year 2030," he said. Unfortunately, Mr. Kalam, like Mr.
>Bush, is far better at talking than at any real action to reduce
>energy consumption. In the new enclaves for India's emerging middle
>class and its rapidly rising nouveau riche, environmentally
>unsustainable, high-ceilinged houses feature air-conditioning systems
>that stay on year round.
>
>When President Bush makes his long-planned trip to India next month,
>he will be visiting a country that, like China, has begun to gear its
>international strategy to its energy needs. That is one of the
>biggest diplomatic challenges facing the United States, and right now
>the American strategy is askew.
>
>India desperately wants Mr. Bush to wring approval from Congress for
>a misbegotten pact in which America would help meet India's energy
>requirements through civilian nuclear cooperation. With its eye on
>the nuclear deal, India recently bowed to American pressure and cast
>its vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran's
>suspected nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council.
>
>That was a victory for Mr. Bush, and India did the right thing in
>helping to hold Iran accountable, but the deal it wants to make with
>the United States is a bad one. It would allow India to make an end
>run around the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty's basic bargain, which
>rewards countries willing to renounce nuclear weapons with the
>opportunity to import sensitive nuclear technology to help meet their
>energy needs. America has imposed nuclear export restrictions on
>India because India refuses to sign the nonproliferation treaty and
>it has tested a nuclear device that uses materials and technology
>diverted from its civilian nuclear program.
>
>In trying to give India a special exemption, Mr. Bush is threatening
>the nonproliferation treaty's carrot-and-stick approach, which for
>more than 35 years has dissuaded countries that are capable of
>building or buying nuclear arms from doing so, from South Korea to
>Turkey to Saudi Arabia. And if his hope is that the promise of
>nuclear technology from America will be enough to prod India to turn
>its back on Iran, that's a bad bet. Even as India was casting its
>vote on Iran's nuclear program, India's petroleum minister, Murli
>Deora, said his government would continue to pursue a
>multibillion-dollar gas pipeline deal with Tehran.
>
> There is no diplomatic quick fix in this energy-hungry world. Even
>if India shunned Iran, it would still have to turn to other petroleum
>suppliers that Washington wants to isolate, including Sudan and
>Venezuela. And the Iranian supplies would wind up going to other
>energy-hungry nations, tying them more closely to Tehran. If Mr. Bush
>wants to tackle this quandary seriously, he needs to begin by pushing
>for significant energy conservation steps in the United States, by
>far the world's largest energy consumer. That would do far more to
>weaken the stranglehold Iran and other energy-producing nations now
>exercise over world oil markets.
>
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