Hello- I received the following e-mail last night and found it interesting. Of course I'm no political expert but it seems clear that we are on the brink of war with Iraq so we can either claim or have some degree of control over the oil reserves in that country and those surrounding it. As the gasoline prices continue to rise it does also seem as if our government is jacking them up purposely to financially pressure the American people into supporting the war efforts. As we all know, Bush claims the thrust of the war effort is to disarm Iraq, but who believes that's his real motive? Let me repeat, though, that I don't pretend to have the last word on current events so maybe the US/Iraq war issue has more angles than I'm seeing. (But if our government IS so concerned about weapons of warfare why aren't we declaring war on North Korea?)
All that aside, the e-mail below doesn't refer at all to the potential war but it does list a number of gasoline companies who do not import Middle Eastern oil. That surprised me because I thought our gasoline companies were all dependent on Middle Eastern oil. Is it possible that we really don't even NEED their oil? I don't know the answer. At any rate, maybe I'll retire my Chevron card and start gassing up at Citgo, Sunoco, or some of the others listed. I don't think we should go to war in the Middle East, but there's a huge amount of anti-American sentiment in that region so why should we help support their countries' economies? If anyone sees a flaw in my rationale, please e-mail me. Seriously, please do. The points made below seem valid to me, but I could be missing something.


>Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 11:55:16 -0500
>
>GASOLINE SOLUTION!
>
>We CAN buy gasoline that's not from the Middle East. Why didn't
>George W. think of this? Gas rationing in the 80's worked even though
>we grumbled about it. It might even be good for us!
>
>The Saudis are boycotting American goods. We should return the
>favor. An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS. Every time you
>fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of
>Saudi Arabia.
>
>Just buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the
>Saudis. Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I
>fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people who are trying to
kill
>
>me, my family, and my friends. I thought it might be interesting for
you
>
>to know which oil companies are the best to buy
>gas from.
>
>Which major companies import Middle Eastern oil (for the period
>9/1/00 -8/31/01)
>
>Shell............................205,742,000 barrels
>Chevron/Texaco.........144,332,000 barrels
>Exxon /Mobil................130,082,000 barrels
>Marathon/Speedway...117,740,000 barrels
>Amoco.........................62,231,000 barrels
>
>If you do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount to over $18
>BILLION!
>
>Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:
>Citgo....................0 barrels
>Sunoco............. . 0 barrels
>Conoco............. ..0 barrels
>Sinclair............... 0 barrels
>BP/Phillips.......... 0 barrels
>Hess...................0 barrels
>
>All of this information is available from the Department of Energy and
>each is required to state where they get their oil and how much they
>are importing. They report on a monthly basis. Keep this list in your
>car; share it with friends. Stop paying for terrorism.............
>
>But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of gas
>buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't wimp out at this
>point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach
millions
>of
>people!!
>
>I'm sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it
to
>at
>least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least
ten
>more (300 x 10=3,000) and so on, by the time the message reaches
>the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE
>MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this
>on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been
contacted!
>
>If it goes one level further, you guessed it...... THREE HUNDRED
>MILLION PEOPLE!!!
>
>Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. How much would
>all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people
>within one day all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted