DEAR MR. GREEN

I wrote an e-mail to MR. GREEN of SIERRA CLUB magazine and he responded. I know a lot of people had the same question so here is the Q & A.

Dear Mr. Green,

In light of the BP disaster in the Gulf, and its Exxon Mobil counterpart off the coast of Nigeria, I just don't know where I'm supposed to buy my gas. Yes, I know the answer is for us to all use less, but in the end, I still need to occasionally fill up the tank. What oil company is the "cleanest?" I'd like to put my money where my mouth is and boycott, but it seems to me if I boycott all that I should, there is nowhere left to buy gas.

Please help,

--
Michelle Craven

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Dear Michelle,

Thanks for getting in touch with your question. A number of people
have asked about what oil company to turn to. As you may know, Sierra
did a "Pick Your Poison" list a few years ago that ranked the oil
companies (See http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/pickyourpoison/), and
at that time BP was considered one of the best companies. Obviously it
has completely fallen from grace.

One reason BP had a high rating was that its approaches to alternative
energy and climate change were much more pro-environment than other
companies.

Given the situation, Sierra decided not to redo its “Pick Your Poison”
ratings, but instead to focus its efforts on a campaign to truly get
us Beyond Petroleum. For more information, and to become involved, see
http://letsmovebeyondoil.org/. Unfortunately, without an update of the
list, I can't give you a definitive answer at this time. I'm sorry
about this. I'm hoping to be able to find the time to look into this
more. It's a pretty huge task because there are so many elements to
consider in rating the companies.

Please don't hesitate to contact me again.

Environmentally,

Mr. Green