The grisly apparent murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul by a hit squad linked to Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman has led many to try to distance themselves from the autocratic kingdom. That will not be easy for U.S. drivers of fossil fuel vehicles, however, because Saudi Arabia is still a major supplier of oil to the United States. The amount has declined considerably in recent years, but in 2017 the kingdom still supplied 9 percent of U.S. oil imports, which collectively account for nearly 20 percent of total U.S. oil consumption. Saudi Arabia remains second only to Canada among the top suppliers of oil to the United States. The amount of Saudi oil entering California is particularly striking:

Will qualms about supporting the Saudi regime finally drive people to go electric? It wouldn’t be the first time. The 1973 Arab Oil Embargo—wherein Arab oil-exporting states including Saudi Arabia cut production to punish the United States and other countries for supporting Israel—spurred Congress to pass the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1976, which funded early R&D of electric and hybrid vehicles. 

That same impetus is alive today in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s murder. Here, for example, is former Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope writing in Salon: 

Embracing the rapid electrification of transportation, and replacing oil still used in the power sector, will slash both dependence on oil and the price paid for the crude we still use. The difference between the ambitious 20 percent share of vehicle miles that [ABI Reseach] expects to be electrified by 2030 and the modest 3 percent that OPEC recently forecast is a demand drop of 7.5 million barrels a day, equivalent to three-quarters of Saudi Arabia’s entire production. Add residual and inefficient use of oil to generate power and you could replace the kingdom’s entire production. 

The world can do without Saudi oil—but only once it gets serious about electrifying transportation.  

Swapping the gas hog for an EV will help the planet, but it won’t necessarily wash out that damned spot. Sean O’Kane, writing in The Verge, details how the Saudi government has invested $1 billion in luxury EV startup Lucid Motors and bought a $2 billion stake in Tesla. (According to Elon Musk, the Saudis were also behind his aborted plan to take the company private.) Avoiding Saudi oil is one thing, it seems, but avoiding Saudi money is another.