On Oil

Journalist and novelist Gillmor (Canada) offers a stinging critique of the oil industry. Focusing on the U.S. and Canada, particularly Alberta, where he held several summer jobs on oil rigs and later covered the oil sands as a reporter, Gillmor balances his own recollections with a broader history of the industry’s entanglement with national and international politics. He goes in a few unexpected directions, including exploring ways in which petroleum has dovetailed with Christian conservatives, beginning with John Howard Pew, president of Sun Oil, who extensively funded evangelicals like Billy Graham. Gillmor also touches on how oil led to corruption and inequality in Equatorial Guinea, how countries outside of North America are making a faster transition to renewables, and how lobbying and a revolving door between oil and politics hamper regulation efforts in the U.S. and Canada. The book’s many allusions to religion give it an apocalyptic feel (“You would think that oil would be more closely aligned with the devil; it’s... black as night, bringing obscene wealth... debauchery, corruption, and ruin”), while Gillmor’s damning language rings like that of an unheeded prophet (“Oil will remain a part of us. Evidence of its comforting, violent reign will be spread across the world for generations”). Punchy and powerful, this is a knockout. (Apr.)