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

Antonia Juhasz (Author)

Book Description

Publication 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.
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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

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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: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,749 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 30 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 "rbsprods" (Deep in the heart of Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry--and What We Must Do to Stop It (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.)

61 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Efficient hack job, April 27, 2009

By 

Philip John (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry--and What We Must Do to Stop It (Hardcover)

This book is a nice hatched job. Those who are ignorant of the oil industry walk away with a good hallucination of the conspiracy that is big oil.

If that is all you want to read about, then this book will do fine. If you want reality, or have some basic knowledge of the industry, you will tire of it quickly.

The premise of the book falls apart when you examine the details:
1. "Big oil" is actually not that big. All of the major oil companies are dwarfed by the National Oil Companies.
2. Oil is not "easy" to find, nor are oil companies sitting on vast reserves that they refuse to produce. Discoveries have declined every decade from the 1950s, despite drastic increases in technology.
3. Despite massive profits and massive reinvestment, most of the major oil companies were unable to find sufficient reserves to replace production in the last decade.
4. Oil companies do not control market prices. Perhaps the hedge funds and banks that employed the former Exxon traders do, but the majority of oil companies do not hedge effectively (just take a look at the recent layoffs and losses - if they were controlling the market, you would think they would have done a much better job and hedged at $147/bbl oil).
5. Oil companies mergers were not an attempt to reform the "Spawn of Big Oil". The author conveniently ignores the $10/bbl oil price of the 1980s and 90s and the devastating effect this had on personnel and infrastructure. Many companies were forced into mergers in order to survive. You only need take a look at the price of shares in any of the big oil companies during that time to realize they were, essentially, worthless. When it is cheaper to buy reserves than take a loss while exploring for oil under 5,000 ft of water, mergers make sense.
6. The lack of oil refineries is NOT due to an oil company conspiracy. Most big oil companies have sold off their refineries because they return almost no profit (and many routinely lose money) while requiring significant maintenance.
7. The author ignores the effect regulation has on refinery construction. It is almost impossible to build extensions without long, costly and frequently arbitrary regulations. You can forget about building a new refinery - to do that you need to go to Mexico.

I could go on and discuss the huge shortage of petroleum engineers, the lack of a comprehensive energy policy from any administration, the vast quantities of land, natural gas and water our current agricultural system consumes or the cheap price of oil currently compared to extraction costs - but why attempt to burst the conspiracy bubble?

6 of 7 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 (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry--and What We Must Do to Stop It (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.