Have you ever wondered how the oil industry has been able to maintain its monopoly of selling gasoline in the United States when advances in technology have led to cheaper and more efficient alternatives? Not only are the alternatives cheaper and more efficient, the overwhelming majority of Americans support these alternatives because they have grown sick of being forced to use only one form of fuel for decade after decade.
Despite overwhelming support for cheaper and more efficient alternatives, oil companies have been making greater profits than ever before thanks in large part to the rises in gasoline prices. You would have thought that with cheaper and more efficient alternatives available that the prices would have come down rather than go up. In my opinion only one thing can explain this continued dominance, it is efforts by oil industry lobbyists to intimidate the competition and discredit their alternative models.
It is unfortunate in this Country that there are business groups that still support monopolies such as the one that the oil industry continues to maintain. Instead of lobbying for policies that protect their monopoly, the oil lobbyists should explain to the American people why oil is better than the alternative models. Unfortunately, the oil lobbyists cannot do that because they know the alternatives are better and that the public desires the alternative fuels more than oil.
Because they cannot convince the public that oil is better, they instead focus on efforts to discredit the alternative forms of energy. For instance, for years the technology has been available to have hydrogen fueled cars. Despite public demand, efforts have been slow to develop and provide this technology to the public in part because the oil industry has engaged in a campaign to discredit hydrogen fuel. The oil industry has created the perception that hydrogen fuel is volatile and thus unsafe for the public. In essence, the oil industry has portrayed itself as the proven historic safer model.
I believe that any group that must rely upon lobbyists to discredit the competition should be ashamed of themselves. Instilling fear and discrediting cheaper and more efficient models offends the principles of our American economic model. America has progressed thanks to healthy business competition and if groups are allowed to stifle that competition, it will harm our economy and our ability to improve as a Country.
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