Any Decent Gasoline Companies?

[Phoenix]

Hi all.

I am in the process of taking full responsibility for my life and one facet is voting with my dollar. Ideally, I would like to stop using gasoline all together, however I still need to use it at this stage of my life. That being said, does anyone know of any gas stations in the New York area that are not part of the giant corporate oil monopoly?

Even if you're not in the New York area, if you know of any companies that aren't connected to the monopoly, please list them so that others may use this information.

I'd like to support a company that isn't part of the monopoly, similarly to how I am in the process of getting rid of Citibank and joining a small bank. To my knowledge, Citibank and ExxonMobil are parts of the same corporate superstructure.

Phoenix

[markpierre]

Sort of an oxymoron.

[9eagle9]

Twenty-thirty years ago you might have been able to find one but even the 'independent' chains are owned further up the food chain by a monster conglomerate.

[Tane Mahuta]

Hi all.

I am in the process of taking full responsibility for my life and one facet is voting with my dollar. Ideally, I would like to stop using gasoline all together, however I still need to use it at this stage of my life. That being said, does anyone know of any gas stations in the New York area that are not part of the giant corporate oil monopoly?

Even if you're not in the New York area, if you know of any companies that aren't connected to the monopoly, please list them so that others may use this information.

I'd like to support a company that isn't part of the monopoly, similarly to how I am in the process of getting rid of Citibank and joining a small bank. To my knowledge, Citibank and ExxonMobil are parts of the same corporate superstructure.

Phoenix

Firstly...congrads for taking "taking full responsibility for your life"...

as for "any decent gasoline companies?"...depends on what you define

as decent. (imho) All fuel companies/corporations are one & the same.

Independants are a thing of the past.

TM

[9eagle9]

Don't let the gas thing stop you. You can take self responsibility to the limit without getting caught in the trap of external matters.

One) you aren't responsible for the entire world getting dependent on fossil fuels. Even you had the means to never buy another gallon again its is nearly impossible to avoid it indirectly. If you take a bus, you are indirectly putting your dollar there because bus companies, airplanes, etc are dependent on it.

Even getting a bicycle and riding it the rest of your life means that you are indirectly giving your dollar in that direction. Bikes are often composed of much oil based products.

The horse and / or horse and buggy isn't going to help either.

When I got my horses I thought Oh great, this could be a means to be free from the oil companies, but...grain is freighted in on trucks. One would have to make this endeavor a 24 hour day endeavor of avoiding oil and oil based products (meaning avoiding nearly everything and everybody) and that does not leave much room for living.

Even picking up your snail mail means you are dependent or putting your dollar towards oil.

The fact you live in NY at all means you are in some fashion doing it. It can't really be avoided. I'm not sure that it needs to be avoided because its not oil itself that is the culprit it is about an entire world being dependent on an easily price manipulated economy.

So its not like avoiding the tv. Where you can just quit cold turkey.

And it can end up being a distraction where you end up avoiding changing the things you can change in your life.

We have been made dependent on oil and gas, we can become less dependent (or at least much reduce how many dollars we put on it) on it in various ways by even just growing our own food, working out of the home (no commute) etc.

But taking self responsibility begins at the internal level.
There are very few people who can avoid oil based products, it has crept into nearly every facet of life.

[Zencat]

9eagle9 is right. It has become almost impossible to avoid oil based products.

But, we can do other things - like going solar, using a wind generator on the roof or driving a Prius (which I do). Using paper and not plastic also comes to mind. There are so many ways we can all help out.

Phoenix, we need more conscious young people like you. Congrats!

[Phoenix]

Don't let the gas thing stop you. You can take self responsibility to the limit without getting caught in the trap of external matters.

One) you aren't responsible for the entire world getting dependent on fossil fuels. Even you had the means to never buy another gallon again its is nearly impossible to avoid it indirectly. If you take a bus, you are indirectly putting your dollar there because bus companies, airplanes, etc are dependent on it.

Even getting a bicycle and riding it the rest of your life means that you are indirectly giving your dollar in that direction. Bikes are often composed of much oil based products.

The horse and / or horse and buggy isn't going to help either.

When I got my horses I thought Oh great, this could be a means to be free from the oil companies, but...grain is freighted in on trucks. One would have to make this endeavor a 24 hour day endeavor of avoiding oil and oil based products (meaning avoiding nearly everything and everybody) and that does not leave much room for living.

Even picking up your snail mail means you are dependent or putting your dollar towards oil.

The fact you live in NY at all means you are in some fashion doing it. It can't really be avoided. I'm not sure that it needs to be avoided because its not oil itself that is the culprit it is about an entire world being dependent on an easily price manipulated economy.

So its not like avoiding the tv. Where you can just quit cold turkey.

And it can end up being a distraction where you end up avoiding changing the things you can change in your life.

We have been made dependent on oil and gas, we can become less dependent (or at least much reduce how many dollars we put on it) on it in various ways by even just growing our own food, working out of the home (no commute) etc.

But taking self responsibility begins at the internal level.
There are very few people who can avoid oil based products, it has crept into nearly every facet of life.

This is a great summary of how deep oil is imbedded into the world's economy. Thanks for opening my mind to new directions and new thought processes.

Phoenix

[Phoenix]

9eagle9 is right. It has become almost impossible to avoid oil based products.

But, we can do other things - like going solar, using a wind generator on the roof or driving a Prius (which I do). Using paper and not plastic also comes to mind. There are so many ways we can all help out.

Phoenix, we need more conscious young people like you. Congrats!

Thanks Zencat! I appreciate that.

Regarding renewable sources of energy, I do agree we as a planet need to moderate our resource consumption a lot better. However, I am not sold on electric cars that don't derive their power from the sun. If most of the electricity comes from coal-powered generators, then aren't we just substituting one non-renewable for another?

If I had $100,000 to blow, I'd buy this: http://www.venturi.fr/en/Range/Astrolab/Concept

Then, one can go further and say that the materials required to build those solar panels are non-renewable as well - that is when we'll start to need modern chemical processing plants to be used to turn waste into precious metals and other important resources.