Background Briefing: February 16, 2022
The Saudis Stiff Biden’s Effort to Lower the Price of Gas at the Pump
We begin with the rising gas prices contributing to inflation and their impact on Biden and the Democrat’s prospects in the November midterms which have led to the Administration to consider waiving Federal taxes on gasoline. Joining us to discuss Biden’s failed efforts to get the Saudi King to pump more oil to lower the price at the pump is Annelle Sheline, a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute and an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa. She has worked as a journalist in Egypt and Yemen, was recently a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and is currently completing a book on the strategic use of religious authority in the Arab monarchies since 9/11, focusing on the cases of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. We discuss the coincidence that the Saudi Crown Prince MBS met with his pal Jared Kushner just before Biden’s unsuccessful phone call with MBS’s 86 year-old father, raising the possibility MBS is waiting Biden out in the hope of Trump returning to the White House.
How To Get Europe Off Russian Gas and Reduce Global Warming
Then we look into the consequences of a cutoff of gas to Europe from Russia if war breaks out in Ukraine and speak with Tara Connolly, the senior gas campaigner at Global Witness, an international NGO working towards a more sustainable, just and equal planet. She has over a decade of experience in EU energy policy and joins us to discuss her article at CNN, “Putin could turn off Europe’s gas tap. This is the solution,” in which she advocates green electricity solutions to get off the EU’s dependence on Russian gas and reduce global warming.