Meanwhile to reduce the awful effects of ever-increasing levels of greenhouse gases, many scientists estimate an equitable per-person rate of energy use is 2000 Watts, (i.e. 17,520 kilowatt-hours per year of all energy use, not only electrical), which is *ONE SIXTH* of what Americans consume on average . I guarantee you will never see an energy company tack on “reduce my consumption by 83 percent” to all their sober exhortations to be green and caring and environmentally sensitive. It’s doable (Google “2000 Watt society”) but dauntingly difficult.

… and yes, Chevron has some sharpish business practices, including admitting to violations of the trade ban on Saddam Hussein (i.e. circumventing the UN “Oil for Food” program so Saddam could get cash while Iraqi’s starved — treason anyone?), hiring former military and government officials in the Niger delta that, shall we say, have slight genocide issues, the epic pollution of Ecuadorian oil fields for over 40 years, at their refinery in California Chevron “forgot” to mention they’d bypassed waste-water treatment and dumped tons of waste into the water table for about… er… two decades, which turned out to be one of nearly 100 Superfund sites that Chevron is responsible for.

But other than that they do have compelling billboards.

I don’t know how much PR campaigns like this really affect the buying habits of poorly-educated American consumers. I once heard a woman railing against Marathon oil and how she would never support Hugo Chavez. Obviously she was referring to Citgo (Marathon is based in Texas).

Since oil is a strategic resource, it would be great if Americans would buy up their oil from foreign nations rather than burning through our limited supply. If you ask me we should be buying it from elsewhere and pumping it into the ground here, for storage until we really need it (for example, for fighting future wars 50-100 years from now.)

I realize that the tobacco companies were compelled to spend money on cancer research as part of the big settlement, but such a campaign makes a lot of sense for those companies. If your product is killing tens or hundreds of thousands of paying customers yearly, it’s obviously in the best interest of the company to try to keep those consumers alive as long as possible.

They are annoying. I wish they’d include more information about what they are doing to reduce energy usage, improve their environmental record, and cease using slaves to build their pipelines and supporting a violent regime in Burma (which their gas production bankrolls), and compensate the families of the environmental activists their security forces murdered in Nigeria.

This is the print ad version of the Toyota “Saved by Zero” TV commercials.

Here’s an interesting reaction to it:
http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=17263