Book Review: Why We Hate the Oil Companies

Published by: Sandor Schoichet on 14th Aug 2010 | View all blogs by Sandor Schoichet

Why We Hate the Oil Companies: Straight Talk from an Energy Insider

by John Hofmeister

Book Cover

Hofmeister writes with refreshing directness and lack of pretense about two key ideas: the disconnect between "political time" and "energy time" that drives legislative dysfunction in energy and environmental planning; and his own proposal for an independent Federal Energy Resources Board to fix it. Most of the book is a walkthrough of the current US energy business and infrastructure ... the "straight talk from an energy insider" part. He convincingly lays out an array of problems with the approaches advocated by just about everyone, from left-wing environmentalists, to right-wing "infotainers", to the energy and utility power industry itself ... with special scorn for the disastrous and long-running failure of our elected officials of all stripes to address our energy needs in a serious manner. The book provides a prescient and unnerving in-depth background to current newspaper reporting on the BP spill disaster in the Gulf (it went to press just before the explosion and blowout). Hofmeister is on less firm footing, however, when he switches to his proposal for an independent energy regulatory agency modeled on the Federal Reserve. While he surely gets an 'A' for boldness and for thinking outside the box, how this is supposed to work and how we are supposed to get there in advance of a national energy disaster akin to the Great Depression, are both left up to "grassroots pressure." All I can say is that I hope his non-profit, Citizens for Affordable Energy.org, is successful at pushing his ideas onto the national stage, and helping to build a consensus focus on practical solutions. Highly recommended ... wherever you stand on these complex issues, Hofmeister will push your buttons and make you think about what a real solution might look like.