For BP it was a cynical branding ploy, to rename themselves from British Petroieum, and try and get consumers to believe that they were going beyond petroieum. If only. We’ve at nearly 50 days of this horrific oil gush, and the failures at all levels are increasingly apparent. The inability of the President, his admnistration, or the Congress to stand up to big oil is transparent, even if the oil in the deep ocean isn’t. Big Oil has bought and paid for the govt for so long, it’s hard to remember there was a time when excess profits skimmed off in this monopolized industry earned them an “excess profits tax.” Why not now?

One of the main messages of my book is that we need to get off fossil fuels. It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible, as many in the mainstream insist, nor will be be as hard as others suggest. There are a growing number of... (read more...)