Why Do People Hate The Oil Industry? Essays Examples

Most modern economies are driven by the price of energy, or more specifically, the price of oil. Oil is needed to be productive in virtually every industry, which is why there is such a high demand for it. Because of this, oil companies have learned how to best maximize profit and earn billions of dollars every year. Many Middle Eastern countries are profitably simply because of oil, and many domestic oil companies in America do just as well. However, these oil companies are generally not viewed all that favorably. According to a recent poll, more Americans hate oil companies than government, which is significant because the national government has such low approval ratings currently. According to the Gallup poll, 61 percent of Americans have negative feelings towards oil companies, which was by the far the highest out of all private industries (Steffy, 2012).
There are many reasons for this hatred of oil companies. At the time this poll was taken, oil prices were on the rise, and many Americans felt that the prices were going higher than needed. Anytime prices are raised and extra hardship is placed on the people, that business is bound to be received negatively. This is especially true of oil companies because most Americans are dependent upon gas prices. Furthermore, poor environmental perceptions of oil companies are reasons why they polled so low in terms of popularity. Oil companies have caused a number of spills that have damaged ecosystems, as well as producing a product known to produce greenhouse gases causing global warming (Steffy, 2012).
Many other reasons exist for the hatred towards oil companies. A majority of Americans believe, for better or worse, that oil companies have no regard for the ordinary citizens purchasing their product. They are only driven by profit and not customer service. The oil companies are also directly linked to many politicians are there is the appearance that they purchase much of their political support in order to pass favorable legislation in their own interests. There is very little transparency in this process, which causes many to believe oil companies are participating in corruption. This self-serving interest also extends to the future where oil companies claim to be looking forward and dedicated to developing cleaner forms of energy for future use, when this appears to hardly be the case. They are strictly focused on generating profit in the present with very few good alternative methods for a future without oil (Hoefmeister 2010).
Also tied to the issue of oil companies is that of natural resource investing and speculation. Many people also distrust this process mainly because investors can place bets on what price a certain natural resource will reach by a future date. This happens frequently within the oil industry, and this has been linked to causing artificially high oil prices. Natural resource investing often leads to betting on prices, not the actual item. Speculators do not actually carry out the sale of the item, they just impact the price. This leads to further claims of corruption, and can cause economic harm. The problem that speculators play within the natural resource and oil industry investing market is that they do not always strictly abide by the actual supply and demand of an item. It is all based on projections in the future, which are often wrong or partially inaccurate (Colleluori, 2014).

References

Colleluori, S. (2014, December 10). Union Leader Defends Oil Speculators And Ignores Presidential Action As Gas Prices Fall. Retrieved March 23, 2015, from http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/12/10/union-leader-defends-oil-speculators-and-ignore/201837
Steffy, L. (2012, August 29). Americans hate oil companies more than the government, poll finds. Retrieved March 23, 2015, from http://blog.chron.com/lorensteffy/2012/08/americans-hate-oil-companies-more-than-the-government-poll-finds/
Hofmeister, J. (2010, May 3). Why We Hate the Oil Companies. Retrieved March 23, 2015, from http://www.strategy-business.com/article/10207?pg=all