Metrolina Biofuels | Charlotte, NC | Biodiesel | Alternative Energy

image credit: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council

Forty years from now, give or take, it’s going to be really easy to hate some of the executives at big oil. Why not avoid the rush?

You know how we shake our heads at the things big tobacco did last century: targeting kids, commissioning fake health studies, using their limitless profits to buy the political system and hog-tie the judicial system. It’s going to be like that for a lot of these folks.

And Exxon? They are particularly annoying. Annoying in that oil-spill covered bird, blatant disregard for humanity or planet, corporate- greedhead- on- an- immense- scale kind of way.

This isn’t the plea asking you for your boycott. Do what ever you want. But do it with full knowledge of the entity with which you are transacting. And realize you get a little dirty when you roll in the dirt.

So whether you are driving a diesel or a regular gas vehicle or just need a candy bar, let’s put a few things on the table for you to consider the next time you need to pull into a gas station.

• I don’t even need to mention the Exxon-Valdez spill. I was a kid when that happened, and I’m into my middle ages now. Exxon still has fishermen and other groups tied up in court, trying make sure they don’t pay for their crime.
• Since 2005 and 2006 particularly, gas prices have been choking our economy and putting a real hurt on all of us individually, Exxon chose this time to give their outgoing CEO, Lee Raymond, a $400 million retirement package. After paying him $51.1 million the previous year. That is $141,000 a day. $6,000 per hour. And why not? They made a profit that year of $36 billion, more than any company in the history of the world.
• Exxon has made lying a sport. They do it the old-fashioned way, by paying think-tanks to disseminate foul-smelling “science”. But don’t take my word for it, read their own memo, and see how many millions of dollars they’ve pumped into their magical misinformation machine.
• Exxon gave federal candidates for public office in excess of $8 million last election. Guess what they are buying for that?

I don’t have time to actually list all of their near-human-skin-lampshade antics. I’m just saying if there is a BP across the street and you have to pull into that or an Exxon, think about the BP.

And one last thing … remember that U.N. report which pretty much universally agreed that global warming is a fact? An Exxon-supported think tank is offering $10,000 to any “expert” who publishes an article disputing the report. Can these guys really be trying that hard to make their children be ashamed of them when they are sitting in a nursing home wearing a diaper?

Dorothy Parker once said of a rival that “everything she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’.” This is pretty much Exxon, and they have been insulting your intelligence, and your life, and your planet, for quite some time now.