US seeks to replace Venezuelan oil imports

April 01, 2011 | Government & Regulations

Hugo_Chavez Connie Mack, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, urged President Barack Obama to approve the construction of an oilsands pipeline from Canada to the US Gulf of Mexico that would force Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to realize that “the US is not willing to fund his regime indefinitely,” AP reported.

Mack told in the opening ceremony of the hearing held in Capitol Hill that oil dependence has made that “the US Department of State remain a hostage, when it should be calling for an end of the (Venezuela’s President Hugo) Chávez regime for its numerous human rights violations and for supporting terrorism.”

Venezuela currently supplies 10 percent of oil imported by the United States, Mack said.

“We need to immediately concentrate on replacing foreign oil from thugocrats like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela with reliable, stable allies like Canada,” said Mack.

President Barack Obama has announced that he plans to reduce global oil purchases by 33 percent by 2025.