Good analogies don’t die, they get overused. Just like repeated comparisons of anywhere with energy resources as the next “Saudi Arabia” of “enter preferred petroleum alternative here.”

T. Boone Pickens, an oilman turned wind-man, calls the Great Plains the “Saudi Arabia of wind.” Former Maine governor turned wind-man Angus King says the Gulf of Maine is also a “Saudi Arabia of wind.”

Gov. John Baldacci disagrees. Recently, he said Maine is the “Saudi Arabia of wood,” which, if true, would make Baldacci the sheikh of the Great North Woods, and make Plum Creek and Roxanne Quimby into OPEC.

While the analogy is meant to convey an over-abundance of a valuable natural resource, and the economic viability and vibrancy that comes along with it, the truism in the comparison – for Maine – is far from positive.

Saudi Arabia, as the world’s greatest exporter of petroleum, is fearing the commodity’s price increase because it’s a one-trick country, dependent on its copious oil fields for economic sustainability.

There’s no diversification in its portfolio. Petroleum and related industries account for 45 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, 75 percent of its government funding, and 90 percent of its exports.

Attempts to spread the country’s economy into non-petroleum sectors have failed to meet expectation; the U.S. State Department says the kingdom is now executing its eighth five-year plan to diversify its non-oil industries.

Given this oil dependence, rising costs are causing consternation. Earlier this week, Saudi King Abdullah said, in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he wants the per-barrel price of oil to decrease. “It is not in our interest,” the king said, “because it is not in the interest of the rest of the world.”

While this sounds altruistic, it also sounds like the king realizes spiraling oil costs are bad for his oil-dependent home.

Here is where the Maine comparison is sharpest. With 80 percent of homes using oil-fired heating systems, this state is too dependent – and too vulnerable – to fluctuations in the petroleum market, just like Saudi Arabia.

Attempts to diversify ourselves beyond oil have met with limited success, too. Maine is just scratching the surface on natural gas, wood, geothermal and other alternatives, but nowhere near enough to insulate against oil-price fears.

So Maine and Saudi Arabia, it can be argued, were lulled into complacency by the recent – and now wistfully recalled – era of cheap oil.

This is a cautionary tale for anybody wishing to draw comparisons to Saudi Arabia, especially in Maine. It’s better to simply say Maine has great potential to export energy resources, rather than use the analogy.

Because Maine is already a lot like Saudi Arabia.

Just not in a way we’d like to compare ourselves.