Counter Petroleum CongressCommunications CommitteeLast update: Saturday, March 18, 2000 |
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Backgrounders on the Petroleum Industry
These are short, mostly unedited, essays by various individuals on particular issue areas
involving the petroleum industry. (Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect
those of everyone involved in the CPCCC.)
In no particular order: |
The fact that petrol is derived from crude oil, a non-renewable fossil fuel, means that the petroleum industry has considerable environmental impact. But petrol is only one of the end products of crude oil along with plastics, chemicals and pesticides. The oil companies have also attracted criticism for these operations.
Du Pont and Shell manufacture the fungicide Benlate DF and pesticide DBCT respectively, both of which have landed the companies in the US courts for hefty compensation claims. Elf and Shell are also been involved in the chlorine industry, which has recently begun to be more heavily criticised for its role in the production of dioxins (see the WEN report; Chlorine, Pollution and the Parents of Tomorrow).
Shell's oil exploration and production activities on Ogoni land in Nigeria has brought to the public's attention the impact these operations have not only on the environment but also on tribal peoples' land rights. Shell is not the only oil company operating in Nigeria; British Petroleum, Chevron / Esso, Du Pont, ERAP, Texaco, and Total also have interests in Nigeria, where any exploitation is facilitated by a compliant oppressive regime.
Other oil companies have also been criticised for this sort of behaviour in other oppressive regimes, for example Total and Texaco in Burma. It is reported that the Burmese military is forcing indigenous peoples to work on clearing forest areas to prepare them for oil and gas exploration and transportation.
Texaco and Total for example have been criticised for fuelling the oppressive military regime of Burma. Du Pont, the owner of Jet petrol stations, is said by Greenpeace to be responsible for 14% of the ozone hole due to its production of ozone-depleting chemicals. And the French companies, Elf and Total could be on your boycott list over France's nuclear testing. http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/oil.html
The Oil Crisis of October, 1973 is an example of the complex interrelationship between international politics, disputed territories and competition for natural resources such as oil and gas. The crude oil-rich Middle-Eastern countries had cut off exports of petroleum to Western nations as punishment for their involvement in recent Arab-Israeli conflicts. Although the oil embargo would not ordinarily have made a tremendous impact on the US, panicking investors and oil companies caused a gigantic surge in oil prices. The situation turned out to be one of the most memorable of the 1970s. Those who can remember the so-called "Mideast oil crisis" also remember long lines at the gas pump due to petroleum shortages and high gasoline prices. Oil prices and wars, or warring over oil prices, have remained a consistent issue between the US and the Middle East since the 1970's.
Here are some sites discussing the relationship between Imperialism and Oil.
Oil + Imperialism = Blood http://www.neravt.com/left/moore3.htm This site talks about the possible links between the conflicts in Kosova, the US position and the vast petroleum reserves to the east of the region
http://www.duth.gr/maillist-archives/thrace/tl57/msg00128.html USA/Russia: Imperialism, oil and ethnic rebellion
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-159.html "ANCIENT HISTORY": U.S. CONDUCT IN THE MIDDLE EAST Looks at US intervention in the Middle East as driven by desire to secure control over oil reserves and as an extension of earlier British imperialism in the region.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/cp-usa/archives/95-11-04-2.html Imperialism - spell it O - I ö L Exerpt: The 1995/96 "NATO" attack on Yugoslavia is to be the next stage in the continuing, slower-paced, differently-designed American plan for the takeover of the former USSR. The bottom line is for U.S. transnationals to cash in on "the sole superpower's cold war victory." The biggest prize: Oil -- the world's largest still untapped and undeveloped reserves. Oil -- the most profitable foreign-investment industries.
http://cyberhaven.com/globalinvesting/caspianriches.html The U.S. and The 'Great Game': In Pursuit of Caspian Riches
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/awg/gulf_crisis3.html Understanding the gulf crisis Analysis of Middle East and American politics from a leftist perspective focusing on oil as a contested resource.
http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc/hakliyiz/hakliyiz15.html THE MIDDLE EAST, A STORM CENTRE FOR IMPERIALISM! Seventy-five per cent of the oil for Japan, half of the oil for Europe, and 20% of the American oil stem from this area. The Middle East, with its structure as a region which has been kept underdeveloped and contains neo-colonial countries, is an important accumulation of markets where the imperialist corporations carry out their competition and struggle for a bigger share in the plunderi
Feminism has as its main goal to eliminate oppression and the systems of domination that it is built upon. Capitalism is a driving force of oppression because it is based on unequal distirbution of wealth and power. An oil company becomes wealthy by exploiting the land and people of countries it explores in.
This exploitation is of special concern to women because it hits them twice as hard. Women's labour is cheaper than men's labour because our rights are marginalized in a patriarchal/capitalist society. Oil companies use this to their advantage, to build their profit margin. For example, in Canada women earn an average of 71 cents for every dollar a man makes. The higher end of occupations, such as senior management positions show a larger wage gap with women making 68 cents for every dollar a man makes. The female senior managers in the oil industry make a sparse 57 cents for every dollar earned by a man. In Canada alone millions of people work in the oil industry, when all sectors of it are examined, this unequal renumeration adds up. Crown Oil is another example of the blatant mistreatment of women and minority workers shown all to often by large mulitnationals. Henry Rosenberg, the CEO and Chairman of Crown Oil is the focus of a gender and racial discrimination lawsuit brought about by eight workers and management staff. Upon receiving service awards, female employees were expected to give Rosenberg a kiss. Crown is full of racial discrimination too, racist flyers were being circulated before the lawsuit was issued. These are a few examples of the subordination women must face in the oil industry.
Companies are only a symptom of the disease. However, oil companies are some of the largest multinationals in the world, they wield very large economic power. In a capitalist world market this economic power gives them unjust authority. It is only by reducing the power of these companies and by challenging the system that we can hope to see the end to all forms of oppression.
Climate change is an important issue for activists participating in the Counter Petroleum Congress. The petroleum industry will play a key role in our future because the burning of fossil fuels is the greatest contributor to climate change. Many skeptics conclude that the scientific uncertainty surrounding climate change implies that it does not exist or that it bears no relation to human activity. However, scientific consensus has formed around this issue despite the element of uncertainty that is involved in any such prediction. Given that risks include droughts and floods, sea level rise, the disappearance of some types of forests, and stress on fish stocks, it is generally agreed that we need to take some precautions. Policy negotiations, such as the Kyoto protocol, have been taking place for several years now but developments are slow to take shape.
During times when economic concerns have outweighed environmental concerns, environmentalists have been happy just to see talks continue. Some experts hold that even the proposed reductions of CO2 will not be enough to avoid a future where we will have to adapt to a radically altered climate. As a result, it is important to let industry know that we have become impatient with their delays and with their insistence on business as usual. While industry has not ignored the issue of climate change, proposed solutions tend towards flexibility mechanisms like emissions trading, a model aimed not at reducing greenhouse gases, but at shuffling them around the table at a profit for some. We need industry to commit to a shift toward renewable energy and to understand their collective responsibility to our planet and to future generations.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) lobbies our governments to stop any determined action on curbing fossil fuel consumption. Recently, CAPP has been pressuring policymakers not to implement the Kyoto Protocol on carbon dioxide emissions. On March 9, CAPP suggested that "action only makes sense as part of (a) joint international effort". The carbon reductions would be "excessively costly to (the) U.S. and Canada". By this, they mean economically costly to the fossil fuel industry and its dependants. They also suggest that there is a "significant likelihood that Kyoto Protocol will not be implemented".
Who would be lobbying to make sure it wasn't implemented? The oil industry, of course. That Canada might unilaterally take measures to reduce emissions is seen as a "risk". The key message is that government must "avoid imposing costs on Canadian industry prior to knowing what the world will do." There seems to be a two-pronged approach here. First, we shouldn't cut our emissions because it is too costly economically. Notice how there is no mention of the environmental cost of not acting immediately. You can read more analysis of the economics of oil.
Second, the oil industry has an interest in delaying or even killing the Kyoto Protocol. If that seems ridiculous and unbelievably self-interested, read more of what CAPP has to say about sustainability. "Development of Canada's significant oil and gas reserves should be a central aspect of energy and regional development strategy. (my italics) Also, they stress that we seriously consider a "non-Kyoto" approach that doesn't require countries to immediately reduce their carbon emissions. Instead, they suggest we find "long-term technological solutions", regardless of the environmental damage that occurs in this "long-term". Delay and stalling tactics benefit no one but the oil industry itself.
CAPP also favours "emission trading", whereby Canada's clean air can be traded away as a commodity to so-called under-polluted countries. This would give Canadian industry a right to pollute further, which would only increase carbon emissions, not decrease them. Since when can we trade away our right to breathe clean, unpolluted air?
Finally, CAPP wants any commitment to reduce emissions to be purely voluntary and regulated by the oil corporations themselves. Can corporations regulate themselves in the best public interest? I think the record speaks for itself.
The petroleum industry, to put it mildly, doesn't exactly have a shining labor record. Within the companies themselves (ex: Crown Petroleum Corp. - Boycott) there has been unfair lengthy labor disputes. On February 5, 1996, Crown locked out all 252 of it's plant workers in Pasadena, Texas with the offer that "when you accept our proposal, we will end the lockout". This has been one of the longest lockouts in US history. Other such petroleum companies have been known to do business in countries where there are severe human rights abuses, including labor rights. One such example is Talisman Energy in Sudan.
While the oil industry as a whole needs to be stopped from furthering its ecological devastation, it is easy to forget that we support the oil industry everyday through our local actions. Communities around the world are working hard at reducing their reliance on oil.
There are many ways that oil production and consumption harm the urban environment and local economy. It all begins with awareness. Jennifer McCullough has investigated just how much carbon dioxide we emit through fossil fuel consumption.
The global economy is fuelled (literally) by the free flow of oil, from Mother Earth, through our manufacturing and transportation economic process, and into the atmosphere. So long as there is corporate free trade, oil will reign supreme. Free trade as we know it cannot be sustained.
It is not environmentally sustainable to continue consuming petroleum resources. Despite the perceived economic benefits, the costs of oil consumption in terms of climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction far outweigh the benefits of production and employment in the oil industry.
If the true social and environmental costs of oil consumption were factored in, and all government subsidies for oil corporations were removed, most world trade would grind to halt, and so would global warming.
Fossil fuel combustion produces smog, which inhibits photosynthesis in plants, and causes serious environmental illnesses in people.
Other health and economic risks affecting communities include problems associated with global warming. Grass fires, droughts, and crop failures are destroying people's homes and livelihoods. Community self-sufficiency is destroyed by oil consumption.
It is a myth of the corporate elite that we need oil-fuelled free trade to survive. Oil does not sustain communities, it destroys them either directly (oil wars), or indirectly (ecological disaster). Communities must organize to stop oil production and consumption.
There are a number of ways that we can act in our local communities to stop the destruction of oil:
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