The Logical Fallacy of Ethical Oil

Cross posted from The Ryan Painter Show

On the eve of the (hopeful) cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline I feel it’s important to look back and examine the Ethical Oil argument with some depth. It’s important because this argument has snaked it’s way into every facet of the oil industry, as witnessed by the statment from TransCanada upon the (again, hopeful) cancellation of the Keystone project. From CEO Russ Girling:

If Keystone XL dies…Americans will still wake up the next morning and continue to import 10 million barrels of oil from repressive nations, without the benefit of thousands of jobs and long-term energy security. That would be a tragedy.

It matters little where the oil comes from because, simply put, oil is at a fixed price. The Saudis, Iranians, Nigerians, and Venezuelans will continue to make bank off of oil as long as the demand remains. Oil is not traded like most other commodities. It is instead at a fixed price that itself fluxuates, but everyone adheres to. So even if every person on the North American continent stopped buying oil from these nations (a highly unlikely prospect given how cheaply they produce the stuff) there is still China, Europe, India and Russia, not to mention every other industrialized or industrializing country to buy oil from them. So branding oil as “ethical” might make you feel better, but it does little to help the issues that advocates say are important to them (Note: these advocates are apart of a regime that have consistently defunded women’s groups since 2006, so it’ specious to say they support women on one hand, while on the other hand they cut funding for women’s advocacy groups and quash climate policies that only result in the further marginalization of women).

If you really want to do damage to these regimes you will stop buying things made from the use of oil…period. That means plastics of all sorts, tires, furniture, and on and on. Sure it’s not easy, but it’s far more ethical then saying you are morally superior because you continue to support an industry that has a horrible safety record (or in the case of Keystone there is no real detail of supposed safety risks)  and is  poisonous and exploitative.