Book Review – The Tyranny of Oil
This week I read the book, The Tyranny of Oil by Antonia Juhasz. It started off highlighting a lot of what other energy books discuss but then it got interesting. So much so that I’m giving the theme of this review, “How long will American citizens live in denial?”Here are a few facts as laid out in the book that it seems the average American refuses to acknowledge.
1) Big Oil runs our country – not the federal government.
2) Over 30% of the price of gasoline at the pump falls directly under the control of a Big Oil. Huh. Yet they don’t have any role in price manipulation techniques or the prices at the pump.
3) The war in Iraq is an “Oil War” facilitated in part by Big Oil’s desire to get their hands on Iraqi oil. It is believed that Iraq has the second largest amount of untapped oil in the world.
4) Although Big Oil is touting its “alternative energy investments” on average, they equal less than five percent of all company expenditures. Oh, and most oil companies consider development and research in oil shale as an investment in alternative energy.
I could go on but I will say that Juhasz lays out a plan for taking on Big Oil. One of the most important elements, she claims, is the Separation of Oil and State. She writes: “a separation of oil and state”: a commitment to renounce money from the oil industry and support sustainable clean energy alternatives.” A DC based group, Oil Change International, is fighting for this. The alternative energy industry is not represented in this campaign but needs to be involved.
Well if you need something to fire you up and reafirm your support of alternative energy, this is just the book to get you going.
3 Comments
Paul
It’s all so true and so sad. I hope this country never puts anyone from Texas back in charge of the White House and Executive branch – although Dick Cheney had his own as yet unnamed branch of government. Vice President of Bullshit I think is what it was called. If we just stopped subsidizing big oil and big agriculture we could pump money back into education and bring down the cost of health care. Ronald Regan their god even declared – small business is the back bone of the country – not big, monolithic, monopolies, incestuous and ultimately uncompetitive, and noncompeting, and an impediment to the entrepreneurial life blood that moves the country forward. Big corporate america is the roadblock to inventiveness and genius without which we suffer stagnation and decline. Big corporate america conglomerates are in a word un-American.
Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home
Activist – Oil Change International
The Tyranny of Oil and Vice President of Bullshit « Journey Home
[...] Tyranny of Oil is a new book out you can read a review here and [...]
Book Review – The Tyranny of Oil
[...] 2) Over 30% of the price of gasoline at the pump falls directly under the control of a Big Oil. Huh. Yet they don’t have any role in price manipulation techniques or the prices at the pump. Read the rest of the review… [...]
Comments RSS feed —