BLOG OF iECYCLE

To be a socially and environmentally friendly citizen in mainstream society today is no easy feat. Let’s engage in the prospect of investigating where it is most beneficial to buy our gasoline.

No other country requires the use of a car so much as in the United States of America. We’ve all heard the hailed ease of public transit in Europe and other places, but in the US public transit seems to be reserved for the homeless or unemployed, at best the ‘lower classes’ of society. It wasn’t always this way; in fact, many highly efficient public transit systems in cities across the US and coast-to-coast were abolished and dismantled in the early 1900s in the interest of the developing and interrelated automobile and oil industries.

So, let’s talk about oil. Let’s review our debilitating addiction, how no matter the cost, we just keep driving and filling up, driving and filling up.

I pull up to a red light at a main intersection, and I look around me: two gas stations and a car wash on three of the four corners. The fourth corner used to host a gas station too, but they went out of business a few years back. I compare prices and see that today, Shell’s unleaded is 2.57 a gallon and ExxonMobil’s unleaded is only 2.49. Which way do I turn?

Well, this riddle can be solved many ways, but we’re going to go about it the most logically possible: saving money.  First, the difference in my total spending for filling up my ‘97 Toyota Camry (with 13 or so gallons of gas) at the more thrifty ExxonMobil will amount to a grand total of $1.04 ($.08 X 13). ONE DOLLAR?! That’s all I’m saving?? I thought I was getting a deal!

Now that I understand price comparison won’t get me very far, maybe I can rack my brain to see if I remember the social responsibility of each company to help me decide. After doing some research (brain-racking now includes access to Google..) it appears that the least destructive of all mainstream US gas companies is Sunoco. This Philadelphia-based company was awarded a grade of ‘A’, the best refining eco-rating in the industry. Sunoco has also earned more “green marks” (has signed CERES principles, etc.) than “black marks” (2000 Wildlife Refuge Spill, Discrimination lawsuit, etc.). Marathon (Super America, Ashland), Citgo (7-Eleven), and Valero (Diamond Shamrock, Ultramar, Beacon) come in with B+s to B-s, respectively. As for the rest, well, let’s just say Exxon-Mobil got an F. So, at least I know Mobil gas is no longer an option, regardless of my potential one-dollar savings.

We’re not done yet, as there’s one more consideration driving my logical decision-making process. I want to take a look into where exactly my gas is coming from, as in most places, small refiners don’t show up at the Farmer’s Market on the weekend to peddle their wares. I go straight to the search engine for this one (on the Internet, not my brain..) to find the US Department of Energy has a nice-looking ‘Where Our Gas Comes From’ page. Unfortunately it doesn’t say much and boils down to the conclusion that foreign and imported oil are both mixed together in the refinery and then shipped off to the independent retailers – thus yielding it impossible to really boycott oil from any specific country.

Source: doe.gov

The bright side is that if you live in the midwest or the mountain west states of the US, you can buy gas at a Sinclair filling station, where the oil is extracted and refined domestically. “Dinosaur gas,” as my brother fondly regards it, is the closest thing to Farmer’s Market gasoline we can find. See sinclairoil.com for a list of station locations.

In the end, I make a beeline and drive a little farther down the street to the nearest Sunoco station, as my state doesn’t sport the dino logo.

Please let me know if you find any more information on this topic, and post it below for the community to use!

***Don’t forget that local is always the best choice!

Also, look beyond the gas station and into your kitchen, laundry room, bathroom cupboard and pocket – petroleum is everywhere, and every “disposable” plastic container you use and throw away continues to exacerbate our crippling reliance on foreign oil.

First REDUCE then REUSE then RECYCLE!

Sources:

huffingtonpost.com

johnstonarchitects.blogspot.com

betterworldhandbook.com

tonto.eia.doe.gov