Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Muchas Gracias Sr. Chavez!!

Massachusetts Democratic Congressman William Delahunt has announced a deal with the Venezeulan government that will provide ~12,ooo,ooo gallons of low-cost heating oil to low income Massachusetts residents. After face to face meetings in Caracas with Venezeulen Pres. Hugo Chavez, the deal was struck over Congress' August break.
Chavez has long been a thorn in the side of the Bush Administration because of his close association with Cuba's Fidel Castro among other things, (namely in my humble opinion that Chavez lavishes his country's oil wealth on the poor.)
Maybe Chavez is a bit of a thug as the Bushies would suggest, but he certainly has Bush's number, so for that he's a hero in my book. Watching Bush and Chavez do their "fandance" has been hilarious.
If an American Congressman wants to broker a deal (in this case with Citgo, an American subsidiary that gets all of it's oil from South America) to secure low cost heating oil for his constituents, then I say BRAVO! Hey, I used to live in Boston, and winters up there are no joke!!!
This arrangement seems like a no brainer.
Chavez' so called petrodiplomacy may just be a case of a Catholic country providing energy assistance to a state with a high concentration of Catholics.
an interesting caviat:
Citgo is one of a handful of options that Americans can choose if they are looking to NOT support the Saudi economy. The others are SUNOCO, CONOCO, HESS, B/P Phillips, and Arco.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following companies :
Shell, Chevron/Texaco, ExxonMobile, Amaco and Gulf
get their oil nearly exclusively from Saudi Arabia.
Listen, I have nothing against the Saudis, I just refuse to buy their oil.

4 comments:

Peter Lien said...

Bravo Jay - While I comend your sentiment I find it difficult to justify oil at all. To buy South Americian oil only takes that oil away from other needy users of oil, thus reduces global supply. So if the Saudi's don't sell their oil to the US because we are on a bocott of their oil, their oil will still be purchased by others. If we want to hurt the Saudis - the only way is to divest ourselves of oil totally by reducing consumption and using alternative fuels and renewable energy sources.

I find it amusing and disturbing that all the most democratically centered countries in the Middle East have no oil to sell. So for me the fastest way for the US to export democracy to the Middle East is to stop using ALL forms of oil - making the price per barrel of oil drop down to 5USD - then and without loss of life - democracy will bloom in the Middle East.

Peter Lien said...

Oh sorry - most countries with the exception of Iran...

Anonymous said...

how interesting.

Anonymous said...

you suck...