US activist pushes 'terror-free' gas Thu Feb 15, 2:19 PM ET
The first "terror-free" gas station was inaugurated this week in Omaha, Nebraska aiming to send a message to Middle Eastern oil producers thought to sponsor terrorism.
The station in the central US state greets customers with large "terror-free" signs and the pumps proudly proclaim that the oil being drawn is "terror-free premium" or "terror-free super."
Messages plastered inside the station's convenience store drive home the message that it only sells oil from Canada and the United States and supports the war on terror.
"We know that when we go to the pumps we are sending our hard-earned dollars to a part of the world that wishes to destroy us," Joe Kaufman, who is behind the "Terror-Free Oil Initiative" (TFO) which runs the station, told AFP.
The TFO logo combines the twin towers of the New York City World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington, and designations for United Airlines flight 93 and three other aircraft which were hijacked and crashed into those buildings in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"We created this initiative to make a statement to those gasoline companies that purchase their crude oil in the Middle East, that we as Americans are sick and tired of financing our own demise," Kaufman said.
He said his grass roots movement encourages stations that sign on to TFO to purchase their oil from Sinclair Oil Corporation, which generally only buys oil from the US and Canada.
Kaufman said he is well aware he is unlikely to make the major oil companies budge on imports from other producers, but is convinced that more gas stations throughout the country will join his movement in coming months.
"We're not under any illusion that we're going to make a dent in the oil market or in the oil or gasoline business, but we're just trying to make a statement," he said. "We believe in the war on terrorism and we're doing our small part as Americans to fight that war." |
