The "alphabet soup" of Washington recently got a little thicker, with the American Petroleum Institute deciding it was time to be known just by the letters API.
While the US' largest oil-lobbying association will continue to be the American Petroleum Institute legally, its decision to be known as API is part of a "concentrated effort to counter any public perception that our member companies are simply petroleum" and to "highlight the fact that they are involved in things other than petroleum, such as alternative fuels and alternative energy," a spokesman told The Barrel.
The Barrel wonders, though, if there is more than member image at play here. With Americans screaming about $3-plus gasoline prices nationwide and Congress re-floating the idea of windfall profit taxes on oil companies, maybe API decided it was the better part of valor to eliminate the word "Petroleum" from its name. Certainly, just the word sends shivers down the spine of everyday Americans these days.
Perhaps using the acronym, instead of the full name, will make it easier to get Hill staffers to answer the oil lobbyists' calls to set up a meeting with a senator or representative to discuss the latest energy bills. Who would talk to a group whose name includes that dirty "P-word" these days when they could instead talk with API?
Moreover, using just three letters instead of 26 -- yes, The Barrel counted -- will save paper supplies and eliminate repetitive strain injuries from all that typing.
Maybe from here on in, this blog should just be known as TB. But, maybe not. Those two letters don't have the best public image these days, either.
Regarding RIK purchase. Irregardless of supply/demand fundamentals, current fiscal politics sould prohibit Mr.Bush from purchasing anything.
Perhaps as Americians we should work on our debts first. Then when fudamentals entail the need for vast crude purchases we make a streetwise decision.