Of Knights White and Dark

Up front, the reason I am writing about knights today is that I did this picture of me as The Dark Knight. Laugh, please, because it's intended to be comic. (You may click to enlarge.)

As for chivalry and knights-errant, I have always enjoyed the whole idea of knighthood. As a kid one of my favorite coloring books was Crusader Rabbit. As a college student I was taken up with Don Quixote by way of the musical Man of La Mancha. During my tenure at AMSOIL, where I am employed in advertising and PR, I have seen my role as something of a white knight, doing battle against the forces of darkness.

An aside: There are many cynics who believe that the foundation of advertising, and inherent in the job, is a need to lie. Like lawyers, admen are tarred as dishonest hucksters. What I have always believed is that if you have to lie to sell a product, then you should not be in that situation. Or at least, you should strive to exit that position as quickly as feasible.

For those unaware, AMSOIL makes synthetic motor oils and performance products. Their claim to fame is being the first synthetic motor oil to satisfy American Petroleum Institute service requirements. In addition to being the first synthetic oil for cars, they were also first to recommend a 25,000 mile one year drain interval. The company has done that since its inception 35 years ago.

Imagine how many fewer oil cans and bottles would be in our landfills if for the past 35 years everyone changed their oil but once a year. The oil industry, on the other hand, likes having people change their oil frequently. For more than a decade major oil companies have gone out of their way to fight extended drain intervals. For years we've all heard that you're supposed to change your oil every 3,000 miles. Is that really because frequent oil changes are in the best interest of the consumer? I have in my file a 2001 quote from the president of Jiffy Lube International saying that if they could get people to change 100 miles sooner, Pennzoil would make 20 million more dollars. In addition, "If we could move our customers to make one more oil change per year, it's worth $294 million for the oil change alone and $441 million in revenue, when you include ancillary products and services." (Lubricant's World, Sept. 2001, p. 30)

So it is that the little company I work for is jousting with behemoths for whom bottom line profits are the primary driver, not truth or what is in the best interest of the consumer, or the earth for that matter.

The irony is, however, that even though I feel like a white knight, and our company has true environmentally beneficial solutions, if you get into a throng of really Green folks, I am a leper because I'm part of an oil company. "Oil companies are bad, green is good."

Add to that the popularity of seeing business people in a somewhat negative light, and the corporate guy that I am can also be perceived as "bad" in many sectors simply by virtue of my wearing a suit to the office every day. Hmmm.

Well, this might be where the Dark Knight comes in. His motivations are good, but in the end we see he is just a human trying to do the best he can. He's playing a role that in some way fits who he is. And like the comic book hero and Cervantes' Quixote I, too, am just trying to do the best I can within the context of our postmodern environs. If occasionally the giants I'm fighting are windmills.... well, so be it.

Here are a couple of links to articles I've published related to the environment and ethics.

A Few Quick Shots

A few quick shots from the New York International Auto Show. The future is unfolding here.

Automakers have all begun making moves toward greener transportation. A lot of technologies are being explored, but no one is certain what the future really holds in that direction. The only thing I know is that cars look sexy in the showroom. Hard to say what the marketplace will show us. There is plenty of work to be done in setting up new infrastructures. It will not be as simple as waving a magic wand.

The Ethanol Fallacy

The February issue of Popular Mechanics features a challenging story by editor James B. Meigs called The Ethanol Fallacy. Unless you’ve been sleeping in a cave for two decades, you’ve undoubtedly been aware of the ongoing debates regarding the best way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. A wide range of technologies has been evaluated from solar and wind energy to hydrogen power and fuel cells. Since transportation eats up the lion’s share of our energy use, much of the debate centers on how to power our cars and trucks.

Unfortunately, writes Meigs, the best solutions may not be getting the attention they deserve. Washington politicians have bought the “ethanol solution” hook, line and sinker.

Politicians have been falling all over themselves to prove their commitment to energy independence. The bill they have been crafting and carving has as kits moniker the title “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.” No longer just an energy bill, it is a security matter, giving it a special reverence. According to Meigs, this year’s presidential candidates “have outdone each other with vows to flood the nation with ever-increasing rivers of ethanol for at least a generation.”

It’s what our politicans love to do, of course. Take action fast. Look like a leader. Problem is, “shoot first, ask questions later” is a silly way to approach these kinds of issues.

The average person who votes is not really that knowledgeable about these matters, which gives the ethanol lobbyists a leg up. The truth is, it takes energy to make energy. The article points out that growing corn requires nitrogen fertilizer, a product of natural gas, and chemical herbicides, made mostly from oil. The heavy machinery that harvests these 93 million acres of corn all require diesel fuel and lubricants, as do the trucks that transport all this corn. According to one Cornell researcher, it takes more than a gallon of oil to make a gallon of ethanol? Now what’s that all about? How does this reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

There’s something corny about this ethanol business. As I have always suspected, and which the author here is not afraid to point out, the big winners are companies like Archer Daniels Midland whose lobbyists labor night and day in those corridors of power inside the beltway. And for who’s benefit? Not yours or mine.

So what can we do about it? Not sure, really. Any suggestions?