Everyday we deal with oil. Whether it’s driving to work, using a plastic pen or eating food grown with petrochemical fertilizers, oil controls our lives. But who controls the oil?

Around the world, oil resources are mainly in the possession of six mega-corporations: Exxon Mobil, Conoco Philips, Shell, BP, Chevron, and Total. These six companies influence every thing including the environment, transportation and global politics. And their combined profits amount to over $100 billion a year.

The Dictatorship of Big Oil
From 1998 to 2004, Big Oil used these profits on over $354 million of lobbying and more than $67 million in campaign contributions (The Center for Public Integrity, 7/15/04).

This money allows oil companies to have their own private revolving door into Washington. In 2001 Vice President Dick Cheney headed a task force to develop a national energy policy. This task force scandalously held meetings behind closed doors with executives from Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Shell, and BP.

This access to government has allowed Big Oil to shape public policy, including U.S. foreign policy.

The war in Iraq was influenced by these corporations’ desire to control that country’s 112 billion barrels of oil reserves. The question of oil has, in fact, been a predominant influence in U.S. policy in the Middle East for decades.

Oil companies also played a key role, along with a group of auto, tire, and concrete companies, in the formation of the “Highway Lobby” in the 1930s and ‘40s. Prior to the 1930s, many major U.S. cities had efficient networks of public transportation.

This Highway Lobby pushed legislators to put massive amounts of public money into the gargantuan network of roads and freeways that crisscross the nation today. In some cases the Highway Lobby would buy up trolley and subway companies in major cities just to demolish the tracks. This shaped how cities developed, moving away from dense urban areas into suburban sprawl.

Oil has also played the major role in causing massive devastation to our environment. Yet the major oil companies used their influence to edit White House environmental reports and manipulate the evidence to deny that global warming even exists.

What’s The Solution?
Especially with the recent rise in gas prices, there has been a growing anger at the role these corporations play in our lives. Many are debating the best way end the stranglehold of Big Oil.

Recently Ralph Nader, among others, has brought up the idea of issuing anti-trust lawsuits against the big six oil companies. In his article “Break Up the Big Oil Cartel” (Counterpunch, 4/29/06), Nader argues that this would create more competition and result in a more efficient and responsive industry.

However, the growth of giant companies is an inevitable result of capitalism. In 1911 the Supreme Court ordered the break up of the Standard Oil monopoly into 34 separate companies. Now, less than a century later, almost all of the 34 spin-off companies have been bought up or merged into the current big six.

There has also been a move to individual consumer action against the industry, mainly by boycotting gas or riding a bike instead of owning a car.

Unfortunately, any losses incurred by Big Oil in terms of boycotts amount to mere droplets in a sea of profits. The idea that an individual can vote with his or her dollar is a myth. Only mass actions such as strikes and protests have ever led to any significant change. And in many cases it is just not possible for people to get to work or school without a car.

We Need Public Ownership
What is the way out?

The problem isn’t that the oil executives are out to destroy the planet. An oil company is a business, and a business exists solely to make profits. The actions of Big Oil are determined simply by the overwhelming need to make money for shareholders.

The only real solution is to take the oil industry out of the hands of the capitalists and into public ownership. If the oil industry was under public control, decisions about how we use this finite and influential resource could be made in a democratic and rational way, based on the good of society.

Because of the dictatorship of Big Oil, we are currently facing a massive environmental crisis. Solar, wind and other forms of power are far cleaner and more reliable than oil. If Big Oil was taken into public control, we could use the hundreds of billions of dollars for an urgent crash program of scientific research and development of renewable energy.

It is also necessary to end our huge reliance on oil for transportation. We could solve much of this by investing in a major redevelopment of public transit in the U.S. The massive resources of the oil and energy industry could be put towards developing cheap, high speed, reliable public transportation. This would provide an attractive alternative to the smog and traffic jams caused by the reliance on automobiles.

This would not only save working people the time and stress of hours of traffic but also save money as well. An effective public transit system would allow millions to avoid car payments, insurance and the cost of gasoline needed to get around. As a whole, society could save billions, as it is much cheaper to maintain public transportation then to build and maintain a massive fleet of cars. Let’s not forget the benefits to health and safety, since less cars means less air pollution and fewer traffic accidents.

Mass transit is not the most profitable solution, but it is the one that makes the most sense. We have the resources to build an effective transit system, but the forces of Big Oil as well as the auto industry have blocked this alternative consistently. By taking them into public control, we could be free to get where we need to go in a way that makes sense.

Price Controls
However, even if the oil industry were taken into public control tomorrow, it would take several years to build mass transit systems and develop renewable energy. In the meantime, workers need immediate relief from the financial pain caused by high gas prices.

That is why we call for an immediate cap and price controls on gasoline. This would be paid for by removing the tax breaks given to Big Oil, and raising taxes on their profits. The burden of high gas prices falls on the working class and the poor. The crisis in the oil industry that causes these high prices is not the fault of workers, yet we are the ones who have to pay for it. It is time for big business to take responsibility and pay from their profits.

That isn’t to say that a cap on the price of gas is the only solution. It will do absolutely nothing to stop enormous environmental devastation or falling oil supply. The only solution to this is massive investment in public transportation, renewable energy, and taking Big Oil under democratic public ownership.

Both the Democrats and Republicans are soaked in oil cash, and we cannot expect them to seriously take on Big Oil interests. However, a mass workers party, accountable to the needs and interests of regular working people, could take up the slogan for public ownership of the oil industry.

And while Big Oil may be evil, they are not just examples of rotten apples in an otherwise healthy system. In order for humanity to have any chance at a decent future, we need to take the entire economy out of the hands of big corporations and put it into the hands of the working class.