oil boycott

i just got an old email forward that begins:

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.

prepared for a rant on how awesome it would be for the government to forbid trade between consensual parties, i was instead pleasantly surprised to find it a call to voluntary action. the email proposed boycott of companies importing middle eastern oil and went on to list companies who do, and those that don't:

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

Citgo....................... 0 barrels
Sunoco...................0 barrels
Conoco...................0 barrels
Sinclair.................... 0 barrels
BP/Phillips..............0 barrels
Hess........................ 0 barrels

it seems the prevailing assumption is that most US oil comes from the middle east, so i was skeptical of these numbers. courtesy of uncle sam google i found that the information above is wildly inaccurate (snopes debunked it long ago anyway), but it's true that many companies don't import from the middle east at all, and those that do import much less than i expected. persian gulf imports made up only 24% of last year's oil supply.

would the free market alone provide such transparency? certainly not. however, it may allow us to make the same decisions. companies seeing a niche in pandering to those who don't want to support inhumane regimes would make their imports public knowledge. there we are - at nearly same place - without paying for a bureaucracy to record it.

Labels: economics