This week I read the book, The Tyranny of Oil by Antonia Juhasz. It started off highlighting a lot of what other energy books discuss but then it got interesting. So much so that I’m giving the theme of this review, “How long will American citizens live in denial?”Here are a few facts as laid out in the book that it seems the average American refuses to acknowledge.

1) Big Oil runs our country – not the federal government.

2) Over 30% of the price of gasoline at the pump falls directly under the control of a Big Oil. Huh. Yet they don’t have any role in price manipulation techniques or the prices at the pump.

3) The war in Iraq is an “Oil War” facilitated in part by Big Oil’s desire to get their hands on Iraqi oil. It is believed that Iraq has the second largest amount of untapped oil in the world.

4) Although Big Oil is touting its “alternative energy investments” on average, they equal less than five percent of all company expenditures. Oh, and most oil companies consider development and research in oil shale as an investment in alternative energy.

I could go on but I will say that Juhasz lays out a plan for taking on Big Oil. One of the most important elements, she claims, is the Separation of Oil and State. She writes: “a separation of oil and state”: a commitment to renounce money from the oil industry and support sustainable clean energy alternatives.” A DC based group, Oil Change International, is fighting for this. The alternative energy industry is not represented in this campaign but needs to be involved.

Well if you need something to fire you up and reafirm your support of alternative energy, this is just the book to get you going.