The US Is An Oil-tocracy — How To Fight Back

People complain about Big Oil controlling our government, slowing climate action, killing clean air policies (and, thus, countless humans), brainwashing the public through the mass media, and doing all-around shitty shit. We know it — Big Oil is not your friend.

Yet, as much as we complain, as much as we talk about the corruption, as much as we call these people horrible humans, we typically suffer from a fundamental flaw ourselves. We often feed the beast every day.

There is pretty much nothing most of you can do that more effectively undercuts the efforts of Big Oil than ditching your gasoline car. If you are driving around in a gas car on a regular basis, or even an irregular basis, add up the yearly total you send to Big Oil. Look at that total. Consider if you are on the side of Big Oil or actually working to shrink its footprint.

Are you feeding the oil-tocracy? Are you engaged in a willing friendship with the oil-tocracy?

I understand that some people need to drive (or really, really, really think they need to drive) and not every automobile on the market is electric. I understand that you may want a premium-class CUV that can take you from San Diego to San Francisco, or Charlotte to Tampa, or Brussels to Barcelona on a moment’s notice. But, seriously, let’s not be hyper lame and needy in a period that requires drastic transformation.

We want to criticize and demonize Big Oil for trying to stay in business, yet we aren’t willing to slightly modify our model design choice to go electric?

Cost is another factor that often gets thrown in as a barrier to electric vehicle adoption — “my, oh my, those electric cars are just too expensive.” Check out the used car market — your electric buy won’t ever suffer from the need for a muffler, new hoses or belts, a new carburetor, a choke cable, a fuel pump, an intake manifold, or even oil changes. The brakes should last years and years thanks to their limited use from all that regenerative braking.

A used BMW i3 can be had for $15,800 right now, a Kia Soul EV for $13,000, a used Chevy Volt for $6,900, a Fiat 500e for $6,000, a used Nissan LEAF for $5,500.

Of course, there’s always biking and walking for transportation — the most enjoyable modes of transport from my experience. But yeah, if you need a car, just go electric. There are dozens of electric models on the market now — with gas backups and without them; SUVs, sedans, vans, and coupes’ from practically any automaker you can name; in red, white, and blue.

And then, of course, there’s always the Tesla Model 3 — right around the corner — which you can at least put a reservation down for.

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