Juhasz - The Tyranny Of Oil (2008) - Synopsis

UFPPC (www.ufppc.org) Digging Deeper LX: October 13, 2008, 7:00 p.m. Antonia Juhasz, The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry—And What We Must Do to Stop It (William Morrow/HarperCollins, October 2008). Ch. 1: Big Oil’s Last Stand. Summary of argument (1-17). Ch. 2: The Birth and Breakup of Standard Oil. Standard Oil and Rockefeller are central to the history of the oil industry (18-22). The Muckraker and the Monopolist. Ida Tarbell (2325). John D. Rockefeller (25-26). The Rise of Standard Oil. Rockefeller sought monopoly covertly and won the “Great Oil War” in Pennsylvania (26-32). The Standard Oil Trust. The trust’s purpose: to maintain control while miming competition and bribing legislators (32-37). The Sherman Antitrust Act. Emerged in response to the Populist movement, passed in 1890 (37-43). The People versus the Corporations. Corporations and imperialism were the targets of the Populist movement (43-48). The Bombshell. Ida Tarbell’s articles on Standard Oil began appearing in McClure’s Magazine in 1902 (48-49). Power Shift. Her 1904 book, The History of Standard Oil, contributed to weakening Rockefeller (49-52). Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States. A 1906 lawsuit achieved the breakup of Standard Oil in 1909 (52-55). Ch. 3: Big Oil Bounces Back: From the Breakup to the Near Reconvergence of Standard Oil. “[T]oday the severed pieces of Standard Oil are nearing full reunification” (57; 5660). The Standard Oil Breakup: What Went Wrong. Brief history of consolidation (60-71). New Tools: Clayton and the Federal Trade Commission. Woodrow Wilson’s contributions to the ongoing struggle with the trusts (71-75). The Corporate

Cartel: The Seven Sisters, 19181970. Andrew Mellon, Walter Teagle, and FDR as key figures (75-92). The Oil Countries Cartel: 1970-1982. History of OPEC (92-104). The Great Oil Company Merger Waves, 1980-Today. Oil company mergers as fruits of Reaganism (104-26). Ch. 4: Driving the Price of Crude. Deregulation of energy is an overlooked factor driving the price of oil (126-27). A Meteoric Rise. Energy traders, working increasingly outside of regulated markets, set the price of oil (127-33). The Past and Present of Futures Markets. The nature and history of futures markets (133-44). Deregulation. Oil companies, banks, and Enron achieved deregulation of futures trading (144-54). From Electricity to Oil—Enron Keeps Trading. Banks and Big Oil have become involved in speculation (154-66). Conclusion. Growing calls for reform (166-68). Ch. 5: Paying the Price: Consolidation, High Gas Prices, and Contempt. Beginning in the 1980s, Big Oil has reconsolidated (169-72). Gas Prices on the Rise. The price rises of 2008 (172-74). Crude Oil and the Price of Gasoline. How gas prices are set (174-78). Making It Pay: Refinery Concentration. In the Reagan era, downstream operations became key to profitability as gas prices were deregulated and refinery capacity reduced (178-86). The Costs to Public Health, Workers, and Communities. Old refineries like the one in Richmond, CA, were grandfathered into environmental regulations, giving an incentive to keeping them going but at

the expense of the public interest (18699). Death of the Independents: Concentration at the Pump. Big Oil uses various methods to keep gas prices up (199-206). Conclusion. It uses its profits to manipulate public policy decisions (206-08). Ch. 6: Lobbyists, Lawyers, and Elections: How Big Oil Kills Democracy. Big Oil has “simple needs” (209-11). Big Oil versus California. The defeat of Prop. 87 in Nov. 2006 (21119). Big Oil versus the Nation. Big Oil as lobbyist (219-36). The Revolving Door. Big Oil gets its people into key government posts, influencing decisionmaking (238-54). The Bush Administration’s Open-Door Policy. Agencies and “tax abuse” (254-69). The 2006 Peoples’ Rebellion. The Nov. 2006 midterm elections and the 2008 election (269-72). Ch. 7: Big Oil’s Big Plans for the Future: Part I: Environmental Destruction. Vivoleum. The “Yes Men” spoof Big Oil (274-75). Big Oil = Oil. Big Oil is interested in oil, not alternatives (275-78). Climate Crisis. Global warming (278-80). Big Oil’s Lies about Alternatives. Review of Big Oil’s 2007 annual reports (280-91). Big Oil’s Big Spending on Dirty, Dangerous, and Deadly Oil. Big Oil is intent on finding new energy supplies (291-318). Ch. 8: Big Oil’s Big Plans for the Future: Part II: Wars for Oil. The Bush administration in sync with Big Oil (31925). Big Oil in Iraq and Iran: A Brief History. Review of 1908-2000 (325-40). Big Oil in Iraq and Iran Today. 20002004; production sharing agreements (PSAs) (340-51). Turning on the Spigot. 2004-2008 (351-62). Iran: The Next War? Evolving plans to reassert control over Iran’s oil (362-67). Resistance. A 2007 protest at

Chevron’s HQ in San Ramon, CA (36769). Ch. 9: Taking On Big Oil. A new spirit of populism is challenging oligarchy in the U.S., and Big Oil is its mainstay (37078). The Breakup of Big Oil. Calls for a breakup; says we can do it because “we did it once before” (379); cites secrecy as an obstacle; declines to identify “the best method for such a breakup” due to lack of expertise (385); also advocates electoral reform, tax policy changes, regulation, reform of futures markets, increased gasoline taxes, reduced consumption, debate of public control of the oil industry, and an end to wars for oil (378-98). Acknowledgments. Assistants, fellow activists, authors Dilip Hiro, Anthony Sampson, Sonia Shah, Linda McQuaig, and Kevin Phillips, and the inspiration of Ida Tarbell. Notes. 33 pp. Index. 34 pp. [About the Author. Antonia Juhasz holds degrees in public policy from Brown and Georgetown. She has worked on the staff of two members of Congress, John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and Elijah Cummings of Maryland. She has been project director of the International Forum on Globalization, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, and a fellow at Oil Change International. She is the author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time (2006). She has often written about Big Oil in Iraq and her Op-Ed articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. She appeared on NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross on Oct. 7 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=95465269) ]