ruthless sth american dictator also pig fucker

not really. but that's what u'd think about hugo chavez if u believed pat robertson. actually hugo has just done something poor americans will love him to death 4 but which big oil will try to hate him 2 death 4, no doubt, if they could...


Venezuela to sell cut-price heating oil to U.S. poor
Aug 29 10:39 PM US/Eastern


CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Monday his government plans to sell as much as 66,000 barrels per day of heating fuel from its U.S. Citgo refinery to poor communities in the United States.

The offer, made after populist Chavez held talks with U.S. civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, would represent 10 percent of the 660,000 bpd of refined products processed by Citgo. The deals would cut consumer costs by direct sales.

Venezuela's Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said officials were still working on the details on how the oil would be sold from Citgo, a unit of the state oil firm PDVSA.

"We are going to direct as much as 10 percent of the production, that means 66,000 barrels, without intermediaries, to poor communities, hospitals, religious communities, schools," Chavez told reporters at a press conference.

The world's No. 5 oil exporter, oil cartel OPEC member Venezuela is a key supplier to the United States, providing about 15 percent of all U.S. energy imports.

But relations between Caracas and Washington have become strained since left-winger Chavez was elected in 1998 promising social reforms.

Chavez, a former army officer who survived a coup in 2002, frequently accuses the U.S. of backing efforts to kill him or topple his government. U.S. officials dismiss those charges but say Chavez has become a threat to regional stability.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...RIDST_0_POLITICS-ENERGY-VENEZUELA-FUEL-DC.XML

 

I'm really pleased to see this thread posted and james q thanks very much. I didn't hear about this and probably would have missed it if you hadn't brought it to our attention.

But it's not just this article there's a whole larger context of course. I mean pardon me but this website is supposed to be "Hippyland" and you'd think those interested in hippies such as there are here would hold corresponding social and moral values, and that means wanting the best for everybody (don't get me started again just go to the "Geez Matt" thread), and that means paying attention to VENEZUELA because right now in the world on the progressive front VENEZUELA IS WHERE THE ACTION IS and it's fascinating and people should be following it all closely. I mean people can idolize Che Guevara and romanticize the past as much as they want but Venezuela is happening right now.

And think about this particular news item. Here's someone Hugo Chavez really doing something for others in the name of equality, really taking action to help the plight of some people who are less well to do and they're not even in his home country. It can also be viewed as a political maneuver except that no one in the US gives a fuck about Venezuela (except the Bush Administration in a negative capacity and that's not going to change anyway).

I'm not saying Hugo Chavez is perfection incarnate. He needs to be watched closely and if he's straying off course or doing bad things I hope people set him straight because his social and moral ideology represent an inspiration and a challenge where the goals are too important to accept failure or corruption.

Citgo -- yes it's the american subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela the state oil vehicle nationalized by Chavez. One doesn't want to use fossil fuels any more than necessary but when there's the need I always try to purchase Citgo gasoline. It gives a good feeling to know one is supporting humanitarian progress and it's a hell of lot better than going to Exxon/Mobil where 90% or more of their political money goes to the Republican Party.

 

he plans to use satan's army to visit plague and pestilence on the houses of the rich. only the poor will be living and they shall receive the cut price heating fuel.

 

Gas? Who said anything about gas? He's talking about heating fuel. My home, sadly, is currently heated by oil and we expect to pay 60% more this winter.

Hey Hugo! I'm over here just south of Baltimore!

 

thanks for that zoomie. have made the correction.

 

i don't understand why u think it's such a dreadful thing what hugo's doing, gilligan. i know u have your ideological beliefs but this is about helping ppl who would otherwise go cold from want of affordable heating. i'm sure they're not too proud to take a handout from a developing country b/c their own rich western government's too stingy to help its own people. what ever happened to 'love thy neighbour' and doing unto others and all that christian stuff?

 

do unto others is a universal maxim we could all do well to follow. and i don't see what your paying taxes in america has got to do with venezuela donating oil to the poor.

i think the reason the supply has not increased is b/c we've reached peak oil. that's really got nothing to do with hugo chavez gilligan but it does have a lot to do with the gas guzzlin' culture in your country which manages to consume the lion's share of the world's oil. part from it being clever pr and a great gesture of international solidarity there's something a little amusing about this: who said u can't send coal to newcastle?

 

I'm sure he'd like to think so, but he's not quite as important as he likes to think he is. Certainly not important enough to refer to OPEC as "his" cartel.

Besides the OPEC cartel is a charade, they all cheat and in the end the Saudis are the only producer that matters.

 

This assumes that oil pumps have dials and you just turn up the dial when you want to increase output and turn it down when you don't. Its not that simple, and nobody wants to be sitting on excess capacity when the economy slows. Reserves in the ground is an entirely different matter from pumping capacity, refining capacity, and transport capacity. After all, if it was so "obvious" that oil demand was about to surge, why didn't you make yourself a millionaire trading oil futures?

In reality there is benefit for oil producers in keeping oil prices stable and not too high - while cars may run on gas for a very long time, many other users of petroleum have alternative sources of energy. Sustained high oil prices encourages people to switch. So trying to crank the oil price up until economies scream is not exactly a long run plan, and certainly not one that countries like Saudi Arabia - whose future depends entirely on oil - would tolerate.

 

i highly doubt that domestic drilling could add up to more than a drop in the bucket of global oil output.

 

nobody i read seems too sure how much oil there is in the gulf. nobody keeps proper figures about reserves, none that investors think are reliable. it's all based on trust rather than knowledge. i just think that attitude (there'll always be more oil so carry on plundering) seems v unrealistic esp when u consider that the most rudimentary forms of petrol conservation would save so much. and if taking 35-40% of the world's oil for 5% or less of population is not taking the lion's share then these are not lions they're worse, they're big fat fucks in suvs, a whole nation of 'em.

 

There is no point in measuring it any way other than per capita. And Americans don't use much more oil per capita than other rich nations.

As for domestic supply, it would help if there were an embargo but it doesn't affect the price. There is one global price for oil, so the fact that it is "our oil" doesn't help.

Finally, there isn't much evidence that people are changing their habits in response to higher oil prices. So apparently it would have to go higher still to encourage conservation.

 

Lets talk facts.

Average US oil consumption is 20.4 million barrels daily. Gasoline use is 9 million barrels a day or about 44% of the total.

Of those 20.4 million barrels used daily more than half are imported.

The US depends on Venezuela for 10% of its oil supplies.

Average per capita oil use in the US is 2.8 gallons/day. It's about the same in Canada where they drive lots of american vehicles. Average per capita oil use in other industrialized nations is only 1.25 gallons/day.

The typical american domestic vehicle used to transport individuals averages no more than 20 mpg and frequently less. This figure could easily be increased by more than 50%. The conservative Republican controlled congress consistently refuses to take any action to rectify this situation even in the most recently passed energy bill.

The nation and its people are paying and will pay the price. The rest of the world pays the price in pollution.

What else would you expect from, as james q points out, a nation of big fat fucks in suvs (and pick up trucks).

 

what we're seeing now after new orleans is a foretaste of things to come, and soon to come imo. that's both an ecological disaster (caused by climate change i reckon but who's saying that?) and a collapse of civil society due to no oil. some of the stories u read about what ppl are doing to each other to get petrol are frightening. now, if that doesn't wake some of us up then i don't know what will. petrol conservation is something that could be begun right away and be incredibly beneficial to everyone. or we can continue to wait and do nothing until the new orleans nightmare is repeated and magnified across the world and the decision is taken completely out of our hands: there'll be no oil for anyone.

our choice. but hurry up.