CITGO to stop selling gas to US stations; let's act while there's still time

CITGO, a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil monopoly, will stop selling gasoline to 1,800 American gas stations, AP reports.

CITGO will stop selling gas to its stations in Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota. It will also stop supplying many stations in Illinois, Texas, Arkansas and Iowa.

Though American patrons of CITGO have funneled $400,000,000 in royalties to the Chavez regime this year, the Venezuelans say they can do better by selling gasoline on the open market instead to CITGO stations. To meet demand in the US, CITGO must guy gasoline from third parties.

Venezuela is increasingly selling its petroleum products to China and other Asian countries.

As I recommended before, the US government should nationalize CITGO while it still has assets in this country, privatize the assets to American companies, and use the proceeds to fight Chavez-backed subversion in Latin America. Individual franchise owners would be protected.