Liberal Talk Radio

I have to admit that I’ve passed by Citgo stations on the few times recently when we’ve either rented or borrowed cars**. Apparently 7-Eleven has noticed:

Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.

The retailer said Wednesday it will purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, Calif., Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp.

A spokeswoman for Dallas-based 7-Eleven said its 20-year contract with Citgo Petroleum Corp. ends next week. About 2,100 of 7-Eleven’s 5,300 U.S. stores sell gasoline.

Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, and the foreign parent became a public-relations issue for 7-Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

. . .

7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, “Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans’ concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez.”

*For more on the Citgo sign at Fenway, see here.

**And I know it’s just a subsidiary of “the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” but it creeps me out anyway — hey, I’m not afraid to use my purchasing power responsibly!