The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry--and What We Must Do to Stop It

514 Pages·2008·3.035 MB·English

by  Antonia Juhasz

1
e Tyranny of Oil

e World’s Most Powerful Industry—and What We
Must Do to Stop It

2
To my family, for your unending support:
Joseph, Suzanne, Alex, Jenny, Christina, Linda, Paul, Branny, Emma,
Eliza, Simone, Gabriel, and Lucky

To the activists, for the hope you spread
and the change you create
4
For the ignorance of the public
is the real capital of monopoly.
—HENRY DEMAREST LLOYD,
WEALTH AGAINST COMMONWEALTH, 1894
5
6
Contents

Epigraph
1 Big Oil’s Last Stand
2 e Birth and Breakup of Standard Oil
3 Big Oil Bounces Back: From the Breakup to the Near
Reconvergence of Standard Oil
4 Driving the Price of Crude
5 Paying the Price: Consolidation, High Gas Prices, and
Contempt
6 Lobbyists, Lawyers, and Elections: How Big Oil Kills
Democracy
7 Big Oil’s Big Plans for the Future, Part I:
Environmental Destruction
8 Big Oil’s Big Plans for the Future, Part II: Wars for Oil
9 Taking On Big Oil
Acknowledgments
Notes
Searchable Terms
7
About the Author
Other Books by Antonia Juhasz
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
8
1

9
Big Oil’s Last Stand

W
ithin days of the New Year, 2008 began with three landmark events.
Oil reached $100 per barrel for only the second time in history as
gasoline prices began an ascent toward the highest prices in a generation.
And on January 3, Senator Barack Obama became the �rst African
American to win the Iowa Caucus. Voter turnout broke records as well,
with four times more registered Democrats voting than had turned out in
2000. Senator Obama was reserved yet purposeful as he delivered his
historic victory speech. He chose to highlight just a handful of policy
issues in the �een-minute address, making his focus on oil all the more
signi�cant. Obama forcefully declared that he would free the United
States once and for all from “the tyranny of oil” and then pledged to be
the president “who ends the war in Iraq and �nally brings our troops
home.” An already raucous crowd met these pronouncements with
thunderous applause and waves of cheers.
“e tyranny of oil” powerfully encapsulates the feelings not only of
Americans, but of people the world over. Without viable and accessible
alternatives, entire economies suffer when increasing proportions of
national budgets must be used to purchase oil. And on an individual
level, families, facing the same lack of alternatives, forgo basic necessities
when gasoline prices skyrocket. Communities that live where oil is found
—from Ecuador to Nigeria to Iraq—experience the tyranny of daily
human rights abuses, violence, and war. e tyranny of environmental
pollution, public health risks, and climate destruction is created at every
stage of oil use, from exploration to production, from transport to
re�ning, from consumption to disposal. And the political tyranny
exercised by the masters of the oil industry corrupts democracy and
destroys our ability to choose how much we will sacri�ce in oil’s name.
e masters of the oil industry, the companies known as “Big Oil,”
exercise their in�uence throughout this chain of events: through rapidly
10