Boycott the Saudi's. dont buy their gas! <-----

[PowermacG4_450]

I thought this was interesting, so here goes....

GASOLINE SOLUTION!
We CAN buy gasoline that's not from Middle East. 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 and 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.................................................................0barrels
Conoco.................................................................0barrels
Sinclair..................................................................0barrels
BP/Phillips............................................................0barrels
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!!
Spread the word!

[phatcactus]

Hmmm... BP bought out Amoco... I'm certainly not gunna switch where I buy gas from (I get it free from work!) but I am curious as to how that plays out...

[doemel]

Boycott the whole industry! Use public transport where possible, start car sharing pools... You'd have to boycott all oil companies to be sure not to support any kind of terrorism, be it state terror (need I name the most obvious ones?), terrorist organizations in the actual meaning of the word or just plain ol' environmental terrorist (did I just invent a new word?).
Oh, yes, not to mention the car industries. We'd be riding completetly different cars today if they were serious about producing "clean cars". For both the oil and the car industry "environmental friendliness" is just a product of their PR department which created it in response to public pressure.

As always, reality is more complicated. I'd tend to say it's even worse than how I put it.

[symphonix]

I'd tend to agree with Doemel on this one. We all need to do something about our use of oil reserves, and whether that's riding a bike to work or trading your SUV in for a Mini is up to the individual to decide.

Its not a bad time to be on two wheels, with many top quality electric bikes, scooters and even full size motorcycles that get more than 10 times the mileage of a small car. (just as an example, the BMW F650 CS uses only 3.5 litres per hundred kilometres in the city cycle. Compare that to any car. Aprilia's SR50 DiTech scooters are down around the 1.7 litre mark.)

They don't take up much space in traffic, in parking lots or, when their life is over, in junkyards. They produce less pollution, too. They don't cost as much to own and run, and leave you with more money for more worthwhile investments, such as your home or business.

[toast]

I'm laughing so hard people around me at work are looking at me as if I had taken some acid trip.

Seriously, you should be aware of the following points. Extracts from your own post stand in italics.

1. The Saudis are boycotting American goods.

There are good reasons for this. I'll let you educate yourself by reading this objective and exhaustive article from the IHT, International Herald Tribune, published on Thursday, December 19, 2002 and written by Raymond Close.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1219-01.htm

2. 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.

This is how the Saudis feel about America, in fact. If you want to behave as stupidly as they do, that's your choice. But don't call it an 'interesting' or intelligent choice, it is completely (if you excuse my abruptness) ridiculous, aggressive, paranoid and primitive.

3. Stop paying for terrorism...

Your governement has been the first one to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia and to the Arab world in its globality. The US has sold ICBMs and IRBMs they had to get rid of after the SALT treaties to Saudi Arabia and to many other Middle East countries. Moreover, you should know this moreorless underground weapon traffic has not stopped, even though the US are being very directly threatened by terrorism nowadays.

Finally, you should know that if the companies are not using gas from the Middle East, they are members of the OPEC anyway. And this makes them participate to the general Arabic oil market. It is completely impossible to separate the world oil market and the Saudi implication in the OPEC trade.
Check the following links to realize the 'clean' companies you quote are just OPEC members like the other ones:
http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/...0/daily21.html
http://washingtontimes.com/business/...9-61199200.htm
http://www.ideaadvisor.com/article/article.asp?aid=6519

As you already know what I think of your anti-Arab attitude, I'll just conclude that, aside from the fact your proposition lacks all elementary knowledge about oil world trade as well as any form of realistic pragmatic views on the actual world, it has triggered reactions from symphonix and doemel which are a hundred times more intelligent, carefully thought and realistic than yours.

[Cat]

I completely agree with Doemel, Symphonix and Toast.

Up to now the simple use and employment of fossile combustibles (gas, petroleum, carbon, etc.) have made way more victims than all terrorist attacks throughout history.
Pollution and diseases generated by the burning of fossile combustibles have a way higher economic cost than the money spent in acquiring them.
There is no way in the current globalized economy to seprate "good" from "bad" compnaies in the simplistic manner you proposed. Companies invest, acquire, deal, merge and possess shares of each other.
The effort of individual consumers to impact such a widespread product through boycot or political action has up to now no chance of succeding or making a significant difference whatsoever.

Your attitude is based on an eye-for-an-eye mentality which I disapprove of and fear. Vengeful sentiments like this will not lead to overcoming differences and conflicts to each others mutual benefit, but will lead to escalation and war.

Have you ever heard the Beatles' song "We can work it out"? Could be educative...

[aisikl]

-- begin of flame

i'm sorry but i just can't help it (maybe it's because i'm belgian) -- i read something today (in Milan Kundera's Immortality) that i would like to share:

"Forget for a moment that you're American and exercise your brain"

I know this is a harsh generalization and i would be the first to hate generalizations, but i'm just getting sick and tired of how a lot of Americans just have to generalize everything and see the world (that is, them and all the rest) in black and white -- get real, folks, the world is a lot bigger than your continent and a LOT of people think very differently than you -- isn't it your constitution that states something about freedom of ... -- maybe little george has to have the constitution changed to "hypocrisy is what has made us who we are"

-- end of flame --

PS: just so you know: i do think that Saddam is a dictator -- i do think that Iraq is probably better off without him -- but i do think that war is NOT the only answer -- try visiting a Palestinian refugee camp to get a hint of the hell georgie will probably end up unleashing

[Trip]

Jeeze, breathing in the US these days supports terrorism.