Boycott Citgo. Then what?
This entry was posted on 9/22/2006 9:36 AM and is filed under Energy.
When we buy gas, it seems we get to choose between supporting terrorism or Latin dictators, or do we really get to choose at all? As we all know by now, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has recently called George W. Bush the "devil" in a speech in New York at the
Friars Club United Nations.
Some have called for a boycott of CITGO, apparently to emphatically deny the comparison.
These guys too. And
these. (Thanks to
Michelle Malkin for the links.)
We may manage to feel good driving by our enemy's CITGO stores to fill up elsewhere (Chavez recently told a television audience,
"Enough of imperialist aggression; we must tell the world: down with the U.S. empire. We have to bury imperialism this century."), but what good would it do? According to Gibson Consulting, we get 18% of our imported oil from Canada, 2% from the U.K. and 1% from Norway. Most of the rest comes from Mexico(15%) Colombia(3%) Venezuela(10%) Nigeria(12%) Iraq(5%) Saudi Arabia(12%) Kuwait(2%) Algeria(3%) Angola(6%) Ecuador(3%) and Equatorial Guinea(1%).
We import roughly 40% of our oil.
My point, even if we could clearly identify energy companies that used, say, only North Sea oil, a unified attempt by Americans to buy only from these companies could not work. An oil shortage would shut our economy down in weeks. Or less. We are dependent on Persian Gulf oil. We are dependent on the oil from devil-watching Hugo Chavez too. Until we citizens demand a meaningful energy policy (no, this does not mean hybrid cars or wind power) from our leaders (and they won't do a thing unless forced to), we will continue to distribute billions of dollars, each year, into the hands of those who either publicly (like Chavez) or discretely (like the Saudis) hate us.
