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Feedback ForumWhat really keeps America from breaking its "addiction to oil"?Submissions for this question are no longer being accepted. Previously submitted comments appear below. Comments may have been edited for content or space. Poster: Frank Comment: Has anyone NOT yet noticed that the executive branch of our federal government was hijacked in 2000 by a gang of Texas oilmen? Is it any wonder that the vice president has repeatedly stonewalled all Freedom Of Information Act requests for even the names of those who attended his Energy Policy Committee meetings, much less the substance of their discussions, which BY LAW are required to be open to the public. Corruption, fueled by obscene energy industry profits, has prevented our government from giving us any meaningful leadership toward energy independence. Poster: KP Sweeny Comment: Apathy, complacency, denial, a false sense of entitlement, intellectual laziness, willful ignorance. Antipathy to the concept of self-sacrifice for the common good. Poster: Doug Comment: Money, the stubbornness of those who are racking in the BILLIONS of dollars of oil profits, and the American people. If the majority of people would stand up and say no more wars for oil, and give us more sustainable greener fuels then the addiction to oil and the stubbornness of the oil companies would be broken. The fortunate fact is that we, the American public, can make a difference. Solidarity. Poster: Toby Madison Comment: The Federal government is, in my opinion, the principal reason American citizens remain 'addicted' to oil. Funding from Big Oil and the many auxilliary companies dealing with Big Oil keep the Federal government 'lubricated'. The Federal government gains nothing putting money into other energy sources. Other nations are taking steps to lower their needs for petroleum....Brazil is a good example plus New Zealand and Australia....but the U. S. appears to be doing nothing. I no longer find this unusual. Poster: cgb Comment: Pure laziness and apathy - the inability to understand that it really DOES affect each one of us. Poster: Joseph Lynn Pizzo Comment: Oil companies with the extreme profits they make selling petroleum products are preventing the world from changing to a better non-polluting product. This administration is also to blame. These guys will all be dead before there is global ruin from global warming. Why should they care? They are concerned with profits now not global catastrophe in the future. Unfortunately, global warming is ramping up faster than previously thought. Time is short to take corrective action. Poster: John Comment: The Power of Money that is concentrated in the hands of Big Oil, the Automobile Industry and the politicians, local, state and federal, that are owned lock stock and barrel by the afforementioned entities. Poster: Scott Free Comment: It seems to me that humans are creatures of habit, and at this point in time using oil to do just about everything, from personal travel to shipping goods to manufacturing plastics, is our habit. We won't change until necessity forces our hands. Poster: MC Comment: Lack of alternative options. Whether you believe in the conspiracy and collusion of large corporations to stop serious development of alternative energy sources or the real possibility that alternative fuel technologies simply aren't mature. The simple fact is that without a viable ubiquitous alternative, the public cannot help but be addicted to oil. Poster: Bet Power Comment: Huge profits for oil companies is what keeps America from breaking its addiction to oil. Just as with Big Tobacco, even as people died of cancer from smoking, it was enormous profits from the sale of cigarettes that kept Americans trapped in that addiction. Big Oil is the block to progress on all fronts: they are ultimately responsible for providing the motivation for the war against Iraq and the horrible killing of US soldiers and Iraqis there (Big Oil thrive on blood money!). They prevent efficient fuels and cars from becoming available to the masses. They even bet the health of the planet and its environment , laying all life on Earth like cards on the table, for the chance to continue reaping obscence profit. Poster: Eunice Noack Comment: The lack of free Media time for and public funding of congressional election campaigns leaves legislators obligated to large corporate donors, so that they do not legislate: 1) high taxes on gasoline and gas-guzzling vehicles, 2) heavy financing of renewable energy research and development, 3) establishment and subsidization of mass transit and 4) the requiment that all vehicles be fuel-efficient. Poster: Jeffrey Knight Comment: FEAR keeps America addicted to oil! Everyday we are manipulated or coerced in some way by the U.S. governmental agencies & the corporate world's agenda with their greed for personal gain instead of the interests of the public good. Hopefully, more people are awakening from the everyday mediocrity and demand real leadership and action. Poster: Diane B. Comment: IMPATIENCE .... We're a country that is addicted to speed and always in a rush. How sad. If we weren't, we would be riding our bicycles to work and to the local store. We'd walk more often in all types of weather enjoying nature and the changing seasons. But no, we have to have our fancy cars and SUV's and rush to and fro in the fast lane of life. Impatience will be our downfall. Poster: Sue Padgett Comment: A lack of technological alternatives; other sources need to be better developed so it can be more feasible to use other sources. This will have to be a gradual change. Poster: Bill Sharpless Comment: The lack of publically financed elections produce a governance by and for the monied special interests inside the DC Beltway: The ultra-wealthy vested interests (industrial-military complex and the oil supply chain) wish to keep the status quo (US global military protecting oil dictators) as long as possible; US legislators need money to keep winning elections; everyone except the American people makes money and keeps their jobs. Poster: Doni McMillan Comment: America's reluctance to try something different that will upset the economic applecart that the politicians have their fingers in. In other words we are too economically dependent on the internal combustion engine, petrochemical products, petro agriculture, centralised energy. To move into a non-oil economy the big boys might loose out. As a result the pressure is put on those making decisions to stay the course. It is a vicious circle. Poster: Jackie Raven Comment: An unwillingness on the part of individuals to consider the waste and overconsumption inherent in their actions. Those who drive an SUV, for example, do so for their own self gratification, regardless of the repercussions. There also seems to be a lack of interest on the part of the government to encourage people to consume less, especially those members of Congress who receive big donations from the oil industry. Poster: Lisa Comment: We lack the infrastructure, the R and D and the mass production in alternative energies to make these sources of energy cost efficient and user friendly. Our government needs to lead the way, as it requires a large capital investment w/o a matching security of return, considering the opponents. However, lobbyists and special interests hamstring the American government, especially the current administration. The big energy companies have no incentive to turn away from big profits now in exchange for national energy security of the future. The multinational energy companies will profit best using the current energy infrastructure and resources, which they can sell for larger and larger returns. Then, if these companies are long-sighted, they will invest in alternative energies that can be centralized and distributed by them and their subsidiaries. Small regional solutions to energy demands are not profitable to large multinational energy companies, and without leadership from the federal government will have trouble taking hold in any new energy economy. There is some optimism provided by California, which is large enough to develop its own influential policies in medicine and energy. Poster: Elisabeth Comment: I think there are a number of factors, such as few viable options, a feeling of entitlement to big cars and trucks as part of the 'American Way', but mostly I think it's the power of Big Oil and the people who benefit financially by the use of oil. Poster: Jan Alldridge Comment: A wealthy society maintaining a false sense of entitlement, Americans will continue to keep their collective heads in the sand until resource depletion forces the issue. Poster: C. Elliott Comment: We have known since the 70's that oil was going to be a problem, but the oil industry and affiliations did want to change production methods. The claim was the cost of renovating would be a hardship on the public. Neither Congress or corporations were willing to look at change in production of nor was the auto industry willing to explore possible new looks to cars. Everyone was going to ride in style and kept adding toys which inticed the buyer. They fed the buyer and the buyer bought promises that were already doomed. If the public doesn't wake up, government and corporations will continue filling their pockets. |
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