Is big oil clouding our future?

Conspiracy theorists will tell you that it’s big oil, not governments, that rule the world. The dubious claims go something like this: Imperialists in the USA and the UK sell weapons to regimes like Panama, Iraq Yugoslavia/Kosovo, Afghan/Pakistan/Taliban/Mujahidin and Saudi Arabia. They then demonise the region which they sold the armaments to and declare war on the recipients. Examples given are the Panama invasion, The Gulf war, UN Kosovo war, Afghanistan war, Iraq war etc. etc. After the war they station military bases to control the energy resources in the surrounding countries. Current US foreign policy is governed by the doctrine of “full spectrum dominance” they say and the US must control military, economic and political developments everywhere.

I’m not sure how this theory holds up now that America is producing enough of its own crude oil to make it almost self-sufficient and the price per barrel has dropped so dramatically that there may not be much enthusiasm for further oil exploration.

But the power of the oil companies was clearly demonstrated when in 1996 General Motors produced an electric car called the EV1. It was an experimental vehicle which was leased out to selected Californians to gauge their reaction. The consumer feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The punters loved it.

But suddenly, without warning, GM recalled all the cars took them out to the Arizona desert and crushed them.

The story is told in an amazing docudrama called “Who killed the electric car?”

Sadly the electric car threatened the status quo and there is no doubt big oil and their associates were instrumental in ensuring its extinction, even to the extent of bullying the Californian legislators to withdraw their 1990 law titled the Zero Emissions Mandate that required 10% of all new cars sold in the state to be emission free by the year 2003. This was the most radical smog-fighting initiative since the catalytic converter and GM was hoping to get a jump on its competitors with their electric concept car.

The sporty-looking EV1 was a revolutionary vehicle requiring no petrol, no oil changes, no mufflers, and rare brake maintenance. A typical garage visit for the EV1 consisted of replacing the windscreen washer fluid and tyre rotation. The lessees pleaded with General Motors to let them buy the cars, protesting outside the GM offices in their hundreds, but to no avail.

EV1 charging stations still dot the Californian landscape like tombstones, collecting dust and spider webs.

The Global Financial Crisis put electric cars back on the drawing boards and today the new models are looking even better than the EV1. Ever-decreasing petrol prices however may slow down their potential popularity and although I’m not a conspiracy theorist I’m wondering if this is not an oil industry ploy to once more destroy their widespread introduction.

I thought about all of this recently when my trusty old combustion-engined rotary mower gave up the ghost.

Looking at the huge range of mowers available in variety of stores in our town I settled on a moderately-priced electric model. Electric as in powered by a rechargeable battery. I subsequently have some understanding as to why the Californians were so reluctant to give up their electric cars.

I now actually enjoy mowing the lawns.

The new mower is light to push, stops and starts at will, but best of all I’m not ingesting deadly carbon-monoxide fumes as I follow it around the lawn. We own the bare section next door which I also mow and the mower appears to be able to handle both properties on one battery charge. I really have to scratch my head and wonder why anyone would want to own a conventional motor mower.

I’m beginning to suspect that the combustion engine has been kept alive and well by the dominant and dominating oil companies. There can be no other reason.

It’s heartening to know that electric cars are now readily available, although unlike my trusty new battery mower, expensive to buy.

New Zealand needs to change its fleet. We currently import three billion litres of oil for our cars every year. This costs us around $4 billion. We spend more on fuel for our cars than we do on energy for our homes. Petrol is priced at around $1.60 per litre, but charging an electric vehicles’ battery costs the equivalent of 26 cents a litre.

The biggest argument against electric cars, apart from the fact that they will lead to the demise of petrol stations and mechanical workshops, is the mileage they’ll achieve on one charge. But New Zealanders have a low average commute, with drivers in urban centres only clocking up about 22 kilometres a day. The Nissan Leaf will do 166 kilometres in one hit.

However until there are more charging stations dotted around the country you may need to own a second conventionally-powered car to go away on holiday.

My next worry of course is that the manufacturers of my new mower will turn up one day, demand its return and take it up to the desert road and crush it.

I just hope it’s fully charged so I can run them over.

“The use of solar energy has never been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.” – Ralph Nader