Taking us for a ride

Aug. 10, 2006

Dear Leslie,

Most companies lose money if unable to dispense their product. Oh to be an oil company and just get richer.

Shutting down the North Slope oil pipelines shot the price of oil up more than $2 a barrel.

Sludge. That's the culprit being blamed for the corrosion that caused the pipeline shutdown. The company hasn't cleaned out the pipes since 1992. BP didn't clean the pipelines because it wasn't required to. Would any of us neglect our houses or our vehicles or our bodies this way, because we aren't required to?

Greg Palast, the author of "Exxon Valdez: A Well-Designed Disaster," points out that the Alaskan oil no longer flowing was destined for California, where the largest retailer, ARCO petroleum, will reap big profits due to the shortage. ARCO is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Petroleum.

Oil companies are like Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom in "The Producers." If they flub up they win. The rest of us and the environment lose.

Finding a gas station you feel good about patronizing is getting harder and harder. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, smearing oil all over the Alaskan shore, my car stopped stopping at Exxon stations. Now I'll be driving right on by BP.

I realize the no-name brands dispensed at convenience stores are made by the very same companies. We can't really win unless we walk or ride a bike. The only thing personal boycotts change is your attitude.

We can blame the oil companies for being greedy. But we should also expect our government to stop them from taking advantage of us and of the Earth.

In the early 20th century, the age of muckraking journalism led to a pure food act, prison reforms, child labor laws and workers' compensation laws. Land was reclaimed, forest reserves were established, conditions in packing houses were improved. What would we be without these regulations?

Lots of people are opposed to more government regulation. But if the government doesn't control the conduct of the runaway oil industry, who will?

As a nation we now seem willing to take on despots while powerful and rich companies toy with us. Lao-tzu said: " A great nation is like a great man: When he makes a mistake, he realizes it. Having realized it, he admits it. Having admitted it, he corrects it. He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers. He thinks of his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts."

Our shadow at the moment is growing.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.