Terror-free gas stations

If the thought of buying dolphin-safe tuna and free-range chicken makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, just wait until you can fill your car up at a Terror-Free Oil station. The first such station will open next month in my home town of Omaha, Nebraska. The station is owned by the Terror-Free Oil Initiative, a group that promises to sell gasoline sourced from countries that "do not export or finance terrorism." What does that mean, exactly? According to the initiative's Web site, it appears to be loosely interpreted to mean oil sourced anywhere outside the Middle East, which they admit leaves them with "very few" options.

I wonder: Will the long-term benefits of so-called terror-free oil trump consumers' desires to pay as little as possible at the pump? My fellow Omahans seem to be greeting the station with healthy dose of Midwest skepticism. "It's really going to depend on the cost," one told a local news station.