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Petroleum use

Optional Resources

Online Resources

"Capitalism's Environmental Crisis-- Is Technology the Answer?," John Bellamy Foster, Monthly Review, December 2000 (v. 52, n. 7) -- "Capitalists and their acolytes have blocked the implementation of solar power alternatives, some of which are entirely feasible at this stage. Corporations have sought to take over solar power from the grassroots movement, not in order to promote it, but in order to hold it in abeyance. Under capitalism, it is those energy sources that generate the most profits for capital-- of which solar power certainly is not one-- that are promoted, not those most beneficial to humanity and the earth."

"The US Department of Energy Caters To The Needs Of The Oil And Fossil Fuel Industries, While Ignoring Alternative Solutions To Energy Issues," Ralph Nader, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 24 July 2000 [posted by Common Dreams News Center]

"Plundering the Planet: World Bank Support of Oil, Gas & Mining," Friends of the Earth, April 2000

"Refueling OPEC," Charles Komanoff and Michael J. Smith, Washington Post, 23 February 2000 [posted by Common Dreams News Center]

"Here Comes the Sun; Whatever Happened to Solar Energy?," Eric Weltman, In These Times magazine, February 2000

"Public Favors Renewable Energy Funding," Environmental News Network, 4 June 1999

"Surfing the Pipeline: Chevron and the Environmental Impact of Oil," scenes from The Corporate Planet, by Joshua Karliner, 1997 [posted at Corporate Watch site]

"Crude Behavior; The oil industry's influence over America's energy policy," Sierra Club report, April 2000 -- "...instead of using the last quarter-century to reduce America's oil dependency, Congress has kowtowed to the oil companies and auto industry-- refusing to encourage American car companies to make more fuel efficient cars and voting against research and incentives for alternate energy use."

"Polluting Energy Industries to Receive Over $26 Billion from Taxpayers," Friends of the Earth, news release, 23 March 2000 [posted by Common Dreams News Center] -- "Taxpayers will pay more than $26 billion in the next five years for polluting energy programs that benefit the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries."

"Climate Change Spells Doom for Oil," Reuters News Service, 11 January 2000 -- "...oil companies are sowing the seeds of their own demise if they continue to dismiss the fight against global warming."

"Pay at the Pump; How oil companies defraud the government," Ralph Nader, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 29 September 1999 -- "Unlike simple burglaries, big oil thefts are complex and varied. There is the geological type, where the company siphons off oil underneath adjacent property so that it comes up on the property the company is legally entitled to produce from. Then there is the type where the company undercounts the barrels it produces. Indian tribes, among others, have been ripped off with the latter technique for years. At times the companies would buy and sell from their subsidiaries, or to and from each other, to establish a sweetheart price lower than the actual market price, so they could underpay royalties to the federal and state governments, which are the trustees of the public lands."

"Underground Danger," Part 1, and "Gas Additive's Seeping Scourge [MTBE-- methyl tertiary-butyl ether]," Part 2, Dan Fagin, Newsday, 1999 -- Long, substantive investigative report. Part 1 examines the "almost 10,000 gasoline and oil spills [which] are contaminating the underground aquifers that supply drinking water to Long Island and southeast Queens [in New York]. Leaking tanks buried beneath lawns, industrial sites and especially service stations are the most widespread toxic threat to the region's water supply." Part 2 focuses on Glennville, California, one of the worst examples of MTBE contamination in the nation.

"Oil Supplies -- Are We Really Running Out of Oil?, American Petroleum Institute, October 1999 -- "The good news is that world oil resources are abundant, and, if anything, are likely to become more so with new discoveries and changes in technology." Also see other "educational materials" from the American Petroleum Institute.

"The Great Gasoline Greenwash," Tate Hausman, Alternet, Independent Media Institute, August 1999 -- "The latest public relations campaign from British Petroleum (BP) [is] 'Plug in the Sun.' BP-- which also owns Amoco and ARCO, making it the second largest oil conglomerate in the world-- has put solar panels on top of filling stations in about 20 cities around the globe. On sunny days these solar panels power the station's gas pumps and mini-marts, which reduces their reliance on the public grid. BP now proudly claims, 'We fill you up by sunshine.'"

Kingpins of Carbon: How Fossil Fuel Producers Contribute to Global Warming, a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, July 1999 -- Includes an overview of the fossil fuel industry and identification of the Top 20 Kingpins of Carbon.

"Pay at the pump: How oil companies defraud the government," Ralph Nader, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 28 September 1999 -- Describes several ways by which big oil thefts occur, sometimes abetted by a "Congress too full of oil-industry senators and representatives taking tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to stand up for the taxpayers' assets in... public lands. America's big oil companies have been ripping off federal and state governments for decades by underpaying royalties for oil drilled on public lands."

"Texaco on Trial," Eyal Press, The Nation, 31 May 1999 -- "30,000... Ecuadorians, including several indigenous tribes, are among the plaintiffs in a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit that the people of the Amazon have filed against one of America's largest oil companies, Texaco. They accuse Texaco of causing vast destruction to the Oriente, a spectacular stretch of rainforest that dips beneath the Andes Mountains to form the eastern half of Ecuador. Texaco, working in partnership with Petroecuador, the state oil company, pumped more than 1.4 billion gallons of crude out of Ecuador-- and in the process created one of the great environmental catastrophes of modern history."

"Welcome to the Jungle: Shell Invades the Peruvian Amazon," Tom Wheeler, PR Watch, Fourth Quarter 1997 (v. 4, n. 4), Center for Media & Democracy -- "Shell plans to drill for natural gas... in what was originally set aside as a homeland for uncontacted indigenous peoples in the jungles of Peru. ...The land-use agreement does not guarantee any compensation for accidents, contamination of local rivers, or destruction of the forests."

"Texaco's Crude Legacy," Alex Markels, Mother Jones magazine, May/June 1999 -- "Is Texaco a pirate, raiding defenseless victims and stealing their riches with impunity? That's essentially what a U.S. District Court judge must decide in a billion-dollar lawsuit filed by a group of indigenous Ecuadorian tribes against the United States' fourth-largest oil company."

"Exxon Valdez Spill May Take Decades to Heal," Environment News Service, 19 March 1999 -- "Only two of 28 species and resources listed as injured by the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, are considered to be recovered from the devastating effects of the spill."

"Exxon's Deadly Legacy: Ten Years After Valdez, And Still Making a Killing," CounterPunch, March 1999 -- "...the fishing industry in the Sound remains moribund and long-term prospects for the salmon fisherman are bleak, since the pink salmon have developed what biologists call functional sterility and such fry as do get spawned are severely deformed." Meanwhile, "Exxon is doing just fine. North slope oil production has soared. The consortium operating on the North Slope-- Exxon, Arco and British Petroleum-- are earning after-tax profits estimated by Fortune magazine at over $3 billion a year."

"Exxon Argues $5 Billion Verdict Should Be Thrown Out," Martin Wolk, Reuters News Service, 5 May 1999 -- "More than a decade after the nation's worst oil spill, lawyers for Exxon Corp. and Alaska fishermen faced off again in court, arguing over a record $5.3 billion jury verdict." The award would cost Exxon about one year's profits.

"Exxon Valdez and the GDP," Kalle Lasn, Adbusters #23, Autumn 1998 -- "When the Exxon Valdez spilled its load of oil into the Gulf of Alaska-- a dark day in recent American history- - America's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) went up. (A lot of money was spent on the cleanup, media coverage, ecological testing, legal fees, etc.) When the Gulf War broke out, America's GDP went up again- - lots of money changed hands and the country became 'healthier.' Indeed, every time there's a car accident or a newly diagnosed cancer patient, whenever a personal or a societal catastrophe occurs, the GDP goes up and the economy 'gains.'" ...So much for the GDP as an indicator of economic vitality...

"Oil and Gas-- Energy for the World," Institute of Petroleum, London, U.K. -- Extensive coverage from an oil industry perspective.

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Thomas Detwyler maintains this page (tdetwyle@uwsp.edu)
Last updated 31 January 2001