Rice: State Department to appoint special energy envoy
WASHINGTON (AP) - February 13, 2008 Her comments to a congressional committee come amid threats from
Venezuela to cut off oil exports to the United States as well as
several incidents in which Russia has or threatened to cut off gas
supplies to some of its neighbors, most recently Ukraine.
"It is a really important part of diplomacy, in fact, I think I
would go so far as to say that some of the politics of energy is
warping diplomacy in certain parts of the world," Rice told the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"I do intend to appoint, and we are looking for, a special
energy coordinator who could especially spend time on the Central
Asian and Caspian region," she said. This person would also focus
on increasing instability in world energy markets.
Rice spoke in response to a question from Sen. Richard Lugar,
R-Ind., who asked her about progress made on establishing such a
post that was called for in legislation approved last year.
"Russian foreign policy is now largely based on maximizing the
political leverage and financial earnings of its energy supplies
and dominating the transport of energy in Eurasia," Lugar said.
"Moscow continues to use energy to extort its neighbors."
Russian and Ukrainian leaders agreed Tuesday to settle a dispute
over Ukraine's gas debt, avoiding a threatened cutoff in supplies
that had rattled consumers in the European Union.
Meanwhile, Venezuela's state-run oil company SA has halted sales
of crude to Exxon Mobil Corp., which is challenging the
nationalization of its oil ventures in the country with a court bid
to freeze billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
In response, populist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has
threatened to cut off all oil supplies to the United States.
