Posted on 07/24/2006 10:05:47 AM PDT by jmc1969
Richard Lugar, chairman of the US Senate foreign relations committee, has urged the Bush administration to adopt specific "contingency plans" for a potential disruption to oil supplies from Venezuela.
In a letter sent to Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, last Friday, a copy of which has been obtained by the Financial Times, Mr Lugar warned the US that it needed to "abandon" reliance on a "passive approach" to energy diplomacy.
Mr Lugar's warning follows the release last month of an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the US was ill-prepared for an oil embargo by Venezuela, the world's fifth largest exporter. President Hugo Chávez, whose government has been emboldened by a torrent of oil revenues, has several times warned that he would "cut off" oil supplies to the US if Washington persisted in allegedly plotting his overthrow.
"Venezuela's leverage over global oil prices and its direct supply lines and refining capacity in the US give Venezuela undue ability to impact US security and our economy," Mr Lugar wrote in his letter to Ms Rice.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
What a grandstanding putz.
Maybe Pat Robertson wasn't so nuts after all.
Let the drilling commence immediately.
I would have thought that contingency plans would have been drawn up long ago. If they haven't, then someone hasn't done their job.
This is part of the reason we suck up to awful Mexico and tolerate illegal immigration. Mexico is second largest oil supplier after Canada
We are, of course, being held hostage by our very own environmental wacko policies.
Petroleum is a fungible resource. When one source of supply is diverted to another point, then the other sources that had been selling competitively in the former market, simply step up their deliveries, with scarcely a hiccup in supply.
Unless all oil producers acted in concert, it would be impossible to embargo delivery of petroleum to any given customer.
Oil being a fungible commodity, short of an outright halt in production, how could Chavez selectively boycott sales to the US?
Greed is at least as powerful and emotion as hate.
How did Lugar vote on ANWR??? We should be drilling ANWR like a porn star.
Mr. Lugar should recall we're in a world market for crude oil. If Chavez pulls Venezulean crude from the US market, crude from another supply point will be backed out of the market.
BINGO ! You get today's prize.
The world oil market is like a big tank or plenum. Some countries pump it in, others pump it out and pay them money. The basic supply is about constant. So where will Mr. Chavez sell his oil?
--Boris
The oil producing countries are as addicted to our consumption as we are to their oil....
What you said.
WEll, if Mexican WANT to be part of the U.S. so badly .....
then we should take over Mexico.
We can get their oil, their cheap labor, a shorter border to defend, and force them all to speak English and watch "Deparate Housewives" and survival shows on TV.
You hit it right! Why we aren't building refineries as we speak (type?) is a mystery to me. I know there is a lot of drilling going on, but what good will finding oil do if we don't have refining capacity? And as long as I'm asking stupid questions why aren't we building nuclear power plants? Inquiring minds want to know exactly who is stopping the USA from developing it's energy resources. I'd hazard a few guesses but I'd rather hear the opinions of many here who are much smarter than I.
Bingo. He can't stop selling oil or he's bankrupt in 10 minutes. He has to sell to someone, and if he sells to someone, its the same as selling to us. He threatens to cut us off all the time, but he's preaching to his choir, who are economic illiterates.
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