On Saturday, my wife and I drove up to Thomas Jefferson's capitol building in Richmond to join Virginia's state rally in support of the public workers in Wisconsin. We know that peak oil is here and that it's probably the biggest single cause for the Great Recession. We just don't think that a tough economy, peak oil-driven or not, should be used as an excuse for the … [Read more...]
“Mad as hell” in Madison
The large demonstrations at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin are driven by a middle class awakening to the specter of its destruction by the corporate reactionaries and their toady Governor Scott Walker. For years the middle class has watched the plutocrats stomp on the poor while listening to the two parties regale the great middle class, but never mentioning the … [Read more...]
More reasons to hate the Koch brothers
Poor Exxon. They used to be the oil company that everybody loved to hate. This spawn of the Standard Oil breakup had it all: Obscene profits, the Exxon Valdez, a mean CEO who sneered at clean energy, blatant funding for climate deniers. But now, the new ExxonMobil is just not that special anymore. It turns out that all the big oil companies are buying elections, paying … [Read more...]
How we can, and why we must, overthrow Big Oil
Since the US passed the peak of its domestic oil production in 1970 and then suffered the indignity of the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973-74, policy wonks and advocacy groups alike have presented no shortage of sensible plans to start breaking America's dependence on oil. But every attempt to implement a rational energy policy has failed because because the major oil companies … [Read more...]