CONDOLEEZZA RICE --- THE OIL TANKER (INTERESTING HUH?)

by Miker12, Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 21:32

Chevron redubs ship named for Bush aide
Condoleezza Rice drew too much attention

Saturday, May 5, 2001

Leaving a wave of controversy in its wake, one of the most visible reminders of the Bush administration's ties to big oil - the 129,000-ton Chevron tanker Condoleezza Rice - has quietly been renamed (Altair Voyager), Chevron officials acknowledged yesterday.

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The giant vessel was part of the international fleet of the San Francisco- based multinational oil firm, christened several years ago in honor of Rice, a longtime Chevron board member. Rice, a former Stanford University provost, served on Chevron's board from 1991 until Jan. 15, when she resigned after Bush named her his top national security aide.

But critics said the ship served as a giant floating symbol of the Bush administration's cozy ties to the oil industry.

"It does underscore that there's never been an administration in power in this country that has been so close to a single industry -- in this instance, the oil-and-gas industry," Chuck Lewis of the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity said last month when the watchdog organization first raised the issue.

The tanker's name also raised more serious questions of possible conflict of interest for Rice because Chevron does business on six continents and 25 countries and has been sued for alleged human rights abuses in Nigeria.

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