It's Time to Talk REAL Oil Savings
Americans spend a lot of money on gas. But that money doesn't benefit your gas station or you, even if you own oil company stock. Most of the money goes to one place: oil company coffers. Help us tell the real story of where your gas money goes. 
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Where Does Your Gas Money Really Go?
Dear Elizabeth,
Several major oil companies recently released their 2012 earnings, and their profits soared to new heights. It is not breaking news that oil companies reap huge benefits from our oil use. In fact, as a new Union of Concerned Scientists report shows, the vast majority of what you spend at the pump ends up in oil company coffers.
Oil companies are using a portion of their profits to improve their public image, arguing that these record-breaking earnings benefit the millions of Americans who own stock in oil companies—so go ahead—fill up your gas tank and help out your fellow citizen's retirement portfolio. But this rhetoric begs the question: Does your oil use benefit you?
In Where your Gas Money Goes, UCS calculated how much money an average consumer spends on gas, where that money really goes, and what a consumer can expect in return on their oil stocks. Our analysis shows that the 'average' ExxonMobil shareholder gets far less than a penny back from their annual gas expenditures. Even ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who owns 1.7 million shares of company stock, would get only 34 cents back from a full year of purchasing gas only from his own company stations.
The good news is that we can all benefit by investing in oil saving solutions. In fact, whether you are an average driver or an oil company CEO, reducing your own oil use is always a smart fiscal strategy. Here are some encouraging numbers:
• $9,000 – the amount you would save on fuel costs by investing $3,500 in purchasing the Ford Fusion SE Hybrid instead of the conventional model;
• 11 million – the number of barrels of oil we could save every day by 2035 by investing in efficiency and innovative solutions instead of standing still;
• 9% over 9 years – the amount that Exxon has reduced energy use at its refineries by investing in efficiency.
Together we can cut projected oil use in half over the next 20 years, but we need a strong and informed chorus of voices to stop oil companies from blocking progress.
While we don't have the same marketing budgets as the oil companies, we do have dedicated supporters like you who think it's time to spend less at the pump and invest in solutions that will protect consumers, the climate, and our environment from the growing costs of our oil use.
Will you help us start a REAL conversation on oil spending and oil solutions? Check out our new Where Your Gas Money Goes report and share it with your friends and family on Twitter and Facebook.
And if you're not on Twitter or Facebook, you can help spread the word here.
Thanks for working toward a "Half the Oil" future.
Sincerely,
Rachel Cohen
National Field Organizer
Clean Vehicles Program
Union of Concerned Scientists |
