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Stopping
Funding for Terrorism?
Did
you receive the e-mail that's being circulated stating
that not buying gasoline from Shell, Chevron, Texaco,
Exxon, and Mobil will cut off the funding for terrorists?
So did we. But while we wish a solution for stopping
terrorism were so simple, the fact of the matter is
that this email is another example of an urban legend
and it is false. Here's why.
Not
everyone from the Middle East is a terrorist, nor does
every terrorist hail from the Middle East. Moreover,
groups such as the Al-Qaeda have built up diverse financial
portfolios that can operate quite effectively without
revenues from oil exports.
Just
because a refinery purchases crude oil from a non-Middle
Eastern country, does not mean it's not buying Middle
Eastern oil. For example, a good deal of the crude oil
purchased from Russia is actually oil from Iraqi fields
sold through Russian middle men. But this oil still
shows up in the refineries' books as having been imported
from Russia.
Most
of the oil exported to the US does NOT come from the
Middle East. According to the Energy Information Administration,
the biggest exporters of oil to the US in 2000 were
(in millions of barrels per day): Canada-1.69, Saudi
Arabia-1.57, Venezuela-1.52, Mexico-1.36, Nigeria-0.89,
Iraq-0.61.
If
everyone in the US purchased gas only from companies
that didn't import Middle Eastern oil, these companies
couldn't satisfy the increased demand. Their supplies
would run out, and prices would skyrocket. Even if they
could come up with the extra refinery capacity, they'd
almost certainly have to turn to Middle Eastern exporters
to supply those refineries.
Lastly,
gasoline can't necessarily be traced back to its point
of origin. Nor do oil companies sell gasoline only to
their own branded stations. So buying gasoline from
a non-Shell station is no guarantee that the gasoline
didn't come from Shell, or that it wasn't refined from
Middle Eastern crude oil.
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