BCT Editorial – 9/25/06

This page was last updated on September 25, 2006.

Stage struck; Editorial; Beaver County Times; September 25, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“When he addressed the United Nations, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called President Bush ‘the devil.’

“Not the most subtle of men, Chavez drove his point home by noting that he was speaking from the very spot where Bush had spoken the day before and that ‘it smells like sulfur still.’

“Lots of words pop to mind to describe Chavez, all of them in the same vein as the one he used on Bush. But the one non-pejorative word that best describes Chavez is ‘dangerous.’

“One reason he is dangerous is because of the oil his country produces, a good bit of which ends up being exported to the United States. As virtual dictator of that South American country, he could use oil as a weapon against the United States - which is related to the second reason he is a dangerous man.”

[RWC] As I noted in a previous critique, Mr. Chavez can’t really “use oil as a weapon against the United States.” Much of Venezuela’s crude is “heavy sour,” that is, it has a low API gravity and high sulfur content. Both of these properties make the crude more difficult (read: more expensive) to refine and results in lower value products. As a result, refineries must be designed specifically to handle these low quality crude oils, meaning that many refineries cannot process heavy sour crude oil at all. Historically, U.S. refineries have been the best equipped to handle these crudes. In any case, Venezuela crude sent elsewhere would displace other crude that would find its way to the U.S. As just about every other oil producing country, Venezuela spends all its oil revenue. As a result, Chavez can’t withhold Venezuela’s oil from the world market without doing far more damage to Venezuela than to the U.S.

“Using the prestige, power and wealth oil has given him, the Venezuelan has emerged as a leader of a global, anti-U.S. movement that contains more than its share of Chavez-like clones. That’s the context in which his comment that Bush ‘came here talking as if he were the owner of the world’ must be seen.

“If it wasn’t for his nation’s oil, few people would be paying attention to what he says and does. However, Venezuela’s oil makes Chavez a player on the world stage. Unfortunately, our reliance on imported oil helped win him that starring role.”

[RWC] So why do Times editorials constantly lobby against domestic exploration and production?