Customer Reviews

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

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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.)

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?

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.

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.

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.

What an engrossing book. I have now bought 3 of them and given them to my grown children to read. This book captured me from the first chapter and held my interest through to the end. Most nights I would lie in bed reading until 1-2 AM and reluctantly turn off the light, only to toss and turn unable to fall asleep because I couldn't turn off my mind to what I was reading in this book. Ms. Juhasz has done an excellent job of educating the reader on the very beginning of the oil industry and bringing us through to the power of oil today. I found all the details of oil power to be disgusting but not surprising. I wish this book could be required reading for every high school and college student. We really need a wake-up call and this book is it.

I highly recommend reading this book if you care about what is going on with climate change, political corruption and wars.

Antonia Juhasz's "Tyranny of Oil" is a well-written, scholarly work that is fully documented with footnotes supporting every factual statement. Her history of the oil industry is meticulous and revealing. People like Bojan Garic who dismiss this work with personal venom, like "this is the Worst Oil Book I have ever read" only reveal how desparate they are to marginalize someone like Juhasz who speak truth to power. Reviews like Garic's are to be expected when someone like Juhasz draws blood. Other reviewers, like Steve LeVine of the Washington Post have also been dispatched to spread the word that no intelligent, thoughtful person should read this book because it is so factually flawed that its theme can't be taken seriously. But Juhasz's case can't be ignored. It is factually documented where it can be, and it is tight, well-constructed and compelling where the evidence is only circumstantial. What else can one do in the absence of DNA, fingerprints or inculpatory tapes or e-mails? Juhasz readily admits that she has no smoking gun regarding the roll of Big Oil in America's debacle in Iraq, but she, neverhteless, says what needs to be said. She tells us what the 850 lb gorilla in the room is up to. Garic and LeVine, on the other hand, try to throw up a smoke screen arguing that the Gorilla isn't there because we don't have enough DNA for a 100% match. Ignore them. Everyone should read this book.

This is truly a fascinating read. I defy anyone to not be thoroughly pissed at the oil cartel and corporate America after reading this.

This is the right book for our times; from Exxon's record- breaking profits in a time of global recession to America's involvement in wars clearly being fought for cheap oil, this is the book that ties it all together. I have to admit, I also found it compulsively readable!

If you want to feel justified rage at the oil giants and their complicit politician and media allies, this is the book. It shows that oil power is one of the most nefarious threats to our civilization.