The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry--and What We Must Do to Stop It [Hardcover]

Antonia Juhasz (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 7, 2008

Within this detailed assessment of the current state of affairs, Juhasz offers an immediate call to action - a formula for reining in the industry, cutting down its governmental lobbying powers, and reducing world's dependence on oil. With major players in America's most powerful industry charged with collusion, price-gouging, anti-competitive behavior, and unabashed greed, Juhasz proposes a viable answer - the ultimate break-up of the leading US oil companies. Drawing on her own detailed research into the nation's history with corporate monopolies, Juhasz reminds readers of the story of Standard Oil, the most powerful corporation of the early 20th century, which proved no match for a country awakened with a populist spirit and a demand for action.And she argues that today we are in a similar position: with the wide-open field of the upcoming presidential election heralding a renewal of economic populism in the United States, she suggests that 2008 presents a unique window of opportunity for Americans to challenge the companies that have abused the public trust and the democratic foundation of the United States. With its focus on both policy and activism, "The Tyranny of Oil" is a book with the power to create meaningful change.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this thorough, readable takedown of Big Oil, the most profitable industry in the world, Juhasz (The Bush Agenda) exposes the ways in which a half dozen oil companies have achieved control over American families and U.S. politics, triggering environmental and humanitarian catastrophes they have no intention of resolving. Within 10 years of Standard Oil's founding in 1870, John D. Rockefeller monopolized the refining, marketing and output of U.S. oil; ever since 1890's Sherman Antitrust Act split the company into small constituent parts, oil players have scrambled to evade regulation, regather into ever-larger corporations and regain the ability to set prices and control output. Debunking industry claims over recent oil price escalation, Juhasz exposes how Big Oil has used techniques like speculative futures markets and the "Enron Loophole"--along with massive operations opacity--to reap record profits year after year while growing their political influence; indeed, Juhasz locates the current "oiligarchy" making "the most pressing decisions of our time" from inside George W. Bush's White House, crafting policy and advocating war. Calling for a "Separation of Oil and State," this excellent, wide-ranging study of disastrous monopoly capitalism should shake up notions that major energy players are interested in any alternative to more oil, money and power.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Juhasz is a leading activist and expert on international trade and the author of The Bush Agenda (2006). Her indictment of Big Oil traces its anticompetitive roots back to the founding of Standard Oil by John D. Rockefeller in the late 1800s. Standard Oil was broken up by the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, and the majority of the today’s well-known oil companies are its descendants, which have merged into giants once again. Juhasz shows how these corporate interests wield power in Washington, influence the energy-futures markets, deny global climate change, and obstruct the development of alternative fuels. George W. Bush received more financial support from the oil and gas industry than any candidate in history and named more than 30 energy-industry executives to key positions in his administration. As a result, the oil companies have received access to national lands to drill for oil, billions in corporate welfare, and the easing of environmental regulations. Juhasz advocates a course to reduce Big Oil’s stranglehold on our government and create an energy policy that would reduce consumption of fossil fuels and promote greener alternatives. --David Siegfried

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition first Printing edition (October 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061434507
• ISBN-13: 978-0061434501
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,067,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ANTONIA JUHASZ is a leading oil industry expert and Director of the Energy Program at Global Exchange. She is the author of three books: Black Tide, The Tyranny of Oil, and The Bush Agenda. She has covered and commented on the oil industry on NPR, BBC Radio, CBC TV, and Democracy Now!, and in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Petroleum Review Magazine, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, and Ms. Magazine., and she was featured in the CNBC documentary, "The Hunt for Black Gold" and on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A former legislative assistant to two members of Congress, Juhasz is on the National Advisory Committee of Iraq Veterans Against the War and is an Associate Fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies. www.black-tide.org.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The book is great... except for April 25, 2010

By R. J. McCabe

Format:Paperback

Reality.

Actually, I COULD have rated this book 5 stars because Juhasz has written an excellent review of the history and current status of the oil industry.

Insightful, and lucid, she presents a compelling case against 'Big Oil'. And she reminds us (repeatedly) that anti-monopoly regulations are less about the ability to control prices and MOSTLY about keeping political power out of the hands of a few monopolists who will pay to continue to make as much money as possible, damn the external impacts. Perhaps the Supreme Court justices should have been made aware of this minor fact when the voted to permit unlimited corporate spending on political TV ads a few months back. Frighteningly stupid IMO.

So why didn't I rate it 5 stars?

Because her solutions revolved around the implied assumption that if we limit Big Oil's ability to provide this (currently) vital commodity, we will reduce our CONSUMPTION of oil. Not true. WE THE PEOPLE are a major contributor to the problem. We have the power to DEMAND alternatives that don't use oil, but we don't. Bashing Big Oil is nice (and rarely incorrect), but we need to look in the mirror and ask if we've really TRIED to demand something other than the STATUS QUO. Thought not.

23 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars AN EXTENSIVE, SOBERING INVESTIGATION OF "BIG OIL" & ITS POWER October 24, 2008

By RBSProds TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Four and a half ENGROSSING Stars!!! Everyone should read this book if you want to get the real story of oil in the USA and around the world! Investigative author Antonia Juhasz has produced an extensive, sobering study of the oil industry with all of its historical implications, background stories, and relevance to today's problems. In 2007, according to Ms Juhasz, the oil industry was "far and away the most profitable industry in the world", even considering Wal-Mart's burgeoning sales. This book is full of cases that range from the very first US oil gusher, to the birth of "Big Oil", expansionism, the countering Progressive and Populist Movements, oil wars, political scandals, illegalities, manipulations, and the negative impact on the environment, the author points to the long-lasting effects on the world and our lives. She is not in favor of just summarily shutting down the oil industry, but she has some unique ideas of what to do with it. She covers a wide range of additional oil matters from the preeminence of Standard Oil, antitrust laws like the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Federal Trade Commission, the Teapot Dome Scandal, foreign oil companies, lobbyists, ICE energy futures traders, alleged market manipulation, the different types of oil drilling, and how we arrived at the current situation. Of special interest is the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil which was such a huge monopoly that it had to be split into 34 separate companies and also of special interest are the sections on the oil implications of the Iraqi War and Iran which are highly informative. The author 'pulls no political punches' as she describes the Reagan administration's initiation of the dismantling of anti-trust legislation, how the Clinton administration let the "Enron loophole" slip through and how the Clinton and George W.... Bush administrations allowed thousands of oil company mergers, including mega-mergers such as Exxon with Mobil, among others. She describes how Big Oil exercises its influence from the 'price at the pump' to the "erosion of democracy, environmental destruction, global warming, violence, and war". And how much oil is left? The answers by her estimates are surprising and disturbing, which may explain the gouging that's currently going on. She states we must not only end the tyranny of oil in our lives, but also that of the "Big Oil" organizations. Then she explains why we must do it and how, using concepts that are workable if somewhat idealistic. As a plus, the author solves the mystery of some of those unusual oil company names, logos & acronyms. Antonia Juhasz has written an outstanding and disturbing book, with some moderate repetitiveness, that points the way out of the present oil dilemma to a better future by remembering past mistakes. The words of Henry Demarest Lloyd reverberate across the pages of this book: "For the ignorance of the public is the real capital of monopoly". Indeed! Highly Recommended. Four and a half INVESTIGATIVE stars! (This review is based on an eReader digital download.) Read more ›

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Massive and Magnificent November 10, 2008

By Che Marischino

Format:Hardcover

This timely tome is the best current overview of the oil industry out there, and the most ambitious examination of Big Oil since Daniel Yergin's "The Prize." I found it to be a lot more incisive than Yergin (who as an industry consultant, was reluctant to expose his clients' worst crimes, except as aberrations), since it is a more critical examination of the industry (in the tradition of the author's muckraker hero, Ida Tarbell, who she introduces early on), while being clearly written and amply referenced.

What results is a sweeping examination of virtually all the big controversies related to the oil industry -- from the recent history of weak antitrust policies to Peak Oil to Iraq and the relationship between Big Oil and the military -- to global warming. Given the volatility of oil and gas prices, the explanation of how the industry is structured and how futures markets work are particularly useful.

We are also introduced to people who suffer the immediate impacts of oil industry development -- from a poor African-American community downwind from Chevron's giant Richmond, CA refinery to Nigeria (where Chevron helicoptered in security forces that opened fire on nonviolent protesters) to Ecuador (where the company is being sued for dumping ten times more oil in a pristine area of the Amazon than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez).

The suggestions at the end of the book are bold but grounded in solid policy frameworks -- proposals that the post-oiligarchy administration will heed if they don't want to mere cosmetic and incremental reforms.

In sum, if you want one book that explains the key facts about the oil industry as well as the policies necessary to curb the threats it poses to democracy and our survival, read this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tyranny of Oil - Antonia Juhasz - (Harper) July 13, 2010

By BlogOnBooks

Format:Paperback

Long before the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Oil has been a problem. More specifically, Big Oil has been a big problem.

In Antonia Juhasz's must read, `The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry and What We Must Do to Stop It' - just released in paperback - the author reveals numerous secrets of the oil business; secrets that are having a profound effect on our environment, global economies and the prospect of never-ending wars in hot zones across our planet.

Everyone knows Big Oil is trouble, but `Tyranny' is a book that rips the cover off the ball in explaining just how we got into this mess, how vast the problem is in relation to world economies and what can be done to curtail the influence of what is arguably the number one devastation factor facing the earth as we know it.

Rather than sounding alarm bells, Juhasz (`The Bush Agenda') explains the factors that got us to this very unusual place on our history; the early conglomeration of oil interests that was John D. Rockfeller's Standard Oil Trust of the late 1800's, to the break up of the company via the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, to the re-emergence of a virtual monopoly (again) of the business as all the pieces of that former company have now been reassembled through the government approval of over 2,400 mergers and acquisitions resulting in the so-called `Seven Sisters' of oil. (i.e. ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, Total, ConocoPhillips, Valero; not to mention state owned firms like Saudi Arabia's Aramco, Brazil's Petrobras, etc....)

Along the way, tales of political corruption (particularly of the Republican party), arduous lobbying, the influence of administrations from Reagan to Bush II, the `necessity of war' to protect vital petroleum interests around the world, particularly in the Middle East, and the oil companies' lip-service to developing truly alternative energies are all uncovered in the book.

Oil is the lifeblood of the planet and `Tyranny' shows just how far the powerful (7 of the world's top 10 companies are now oil companies) will go to wring every last drop from the earth (onshore, offshore, federal lands, and even the radically environmentally destructive extraction of 'shale oil'). Political overthrows, explosions, the hundreds of deaths of drilling rig operators and severe pollution are mere inconveniences in the path of Big Oil's goals. The quotes, records and other documentation will make your skin crawl.

Given the precarious state of our environment, our economy and our politics, `The Tyranny of Oil' is both a must-read - and will be among our finalists for Book of the Year. Get it, read it, pass it on. Read more ›