if you received the email GAS WAR – an idea that WILL work, consider this:
Saudi Arabia has 25% of the world’s oil. Iraq comes in second.
While there are quite a few “oil companies” in the world, there are really only a handful of conglomerates who control distribution and pricing: BP, Shell, Total, and ExxonMobil. All of the names you find on the pumps are subsidiaries of these umbrella companies. Of them, Shell is the most realistic about their role in the environment; their CEO admits that unless the world begins extracting carbon from the atmosphere and returning it to the subterrane, the outlook is grave.
CITGO is owned by the national oil company of Venezuela, who nationalized all oil related industry in 1977. Venezuela has the fifth largest reserves in the world, and is the fifth largest supplier of US oil, after Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. They currently are in negotiations with China, the fastest growing consumer market.
At current rates of consumption, only 40 years of oil reserves remain.
Brazil is on the verge of announcing energy independence. The country already satisfies nearly half of its domestic passenger vehicle fuel demand with ethanol from sugar cane. The refineries that produce the ethanol are powered by waste from the ethanol production process.
Corn is the only source of raw material for ethanol production in the US, and most studies indicate it takes nearly as much energy to produce the corn ethanol as the fuel provides. Ethanol accounts for approximately 4% of US fuel consumption.
As far as pricing goes, brand-name boycotting is an ineffective mechanism. These are wealthiest companies on the planet controlling the most valuable commodity on earth. If you boycott one company, they will purchase the name of the company you are buying. Get a clue!
And lastly, STOP YOUR WHINING, you lazy, self-absorbed imbeciles! You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Your grandchildren will pay the price of your indolence.
Quit driving. Buy local. Grow your own foodstuffs. Reduce.
You must be the change you want to see in the world – Mahatma Gandhi
Happy Earth Day – April 22, 2006