Gashostage.com

Officials said Iran, hampered by a shortfall in funding, would halt the import of 200,000 barrels per day of gasoline on Sept. 23, 2006. They said no decision has been made on when to begin gasoline rationing.
Despite its status as the fourth largest oil producer in the world, Iran lacks refining capacity to meet the nation’s fuel needs.

The announcement to end gasoline imports — most of it from Western Europe — stemmed from a decision by parliament to reduce the budget for gasoline imports to $2.5 billion from $4 billion, Middle East Newsline reported.

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Another red herring if you ask me.  Make the world feel bad for me… let them think about how many innocent people are going to suffer in Iran because of your actions… blah blah blah….

US President George W. Bush said it was time to move past a debate over whether human activity is a significant factor behind global warming and into a discussion of possible remedies.

“I have said consistently that global warming is a serious problem. There’s a debate over whether it’s manmade or naturally caused,” Bush told reporters.

“We ought to get beyond that debate and start implementing the technologies necessary to enable us to achieve a couple of big objectives: One, be good stewards of the environment; two, become less dependent on foreign sources of oil, for economic reasons as for national security reasons,” he said.

Bush cited “clean-coal technology,” efforts to develop automobiles powered by hydrogen or ethanol, and his push for the United States to develop significant new nuclear energy capabilities.

“The truth of the matter is, if this country wants to get rid of its greenhouse gases, we’ve got to have the nuclear power industry be vibrant and viable,” he said.

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Does anyone find it strange how Bush is now worried about climate change?  Now he wants to ”become less dependent on foreign sources of oil, for economic reasons as for national security reasons.” What does this have to do with global warming?  Sure many of the problems come from burning oil, but his reasons are for “Security” and not for the environment.  Wake up Bush!

Iran on Sunday repeated threats that it was ready to use its massive oil exports as a weapon to defend itself if it felt in danger in an international dispute over its atomic program.

But Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said international sanctions on 2.5 million barrels per day of Iranian crude exports would be impractical and would send oil prices over $100 a barrel, up from around $70 now.

Iran has been hauled before the U.N. Security Council over suspicions it is seeking nuclear missiles, a charge it denies. It could face economic sanctions and the United States has consistently declined to rule out military action.

Vaziri-Hamaneh said earlier this month the world’s fourth biggest crude producer would prefer not to play the oil card and would only do so to defend its rights.

 

He struck a similar tone on Sunday, telling state television: “I think using the oil weapon would be advantageous to Iran in times of threats.”

“But using such a weapon in the normal situation in the country and oil markets would mean confronting the world and we do not have such a policy,” he added.

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Using Oil as a weapon might work for a little while, but it is not a viable solution in the long term.  Iran might just be looking down the barrel of a gun which will be held by many of the world leading countries.  I think Iran is just posturing, but they had better hope they do not push the world leaders too far, as eventually they will push back.  Just ask Iraq and Saddam, it takes a lot of effort to get the world on board, but it can happen, and the results will not be to Iran’s liking.