Oil on the Brain:
Reckoning with the Real Cost of Gas
Lisa Margonelli
April 1, 2011
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At nearly $3.50 a gallon, everyone is complaining about the price of gasoline.
But we rarely stop to consider it's real costs: environmental, economic, political, and moral.
Americans consume 10,000 gallons of gas a second; three gallons per person per day.
Where does it all come from
and where is it taking us?
Journalist Lisa Margonelli spent four years hanging out along the oil supply chain to answer these questions. She compiled what she found in her book "Oil On the Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank."
She gives a lively provocative tour of the true cost of gasoline--as bad for the citizens of the Middle East as it is for those of the US-- and then she explains what we need to do to change our relationship to oil and build a sustainable future. Read more about Ms. Margonelli below.
WIN FREE GASOLINE:
Think you can accurately guess the price of a gallon of gasoline - test your luck! The Utility Exploration Center is hosting a FREE drawing, giving away a $25 gasoline gift card to the individual that guesses closest to the price of a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline on the night of the lecture (April 1). Simply come in to the Utility Exploration Center, 1501 Pleasant Grove Blvd., in Roseville between now and March 28 to fill out your ticket. Please note: you must be present at the lecture in order to win. If you have questions, please call the Utility Exploration Center at (916) 746-1550. Good luck!
Research Participation Opportunity:
Ms. Margonelli has requested to interview individuals that currently or previously commute from Placer County to the Bay Area on a regular basis. She is working on a report for the Rockerfeller Foundation and would like to interview you about the drive or whether you have found other means of transportation. Sign up here for the research project.
Doors open at 7pm with complimentary, locally grown goodies from Foothill Farmer's Market growers. Presentation starts at 7:30pm. Ticket info
About Lisa Margonelli
Ms. Margonelli is director of the New America Foundation Energy Policy Initiative. Ms. Margonelli's work includes an examination of the promise and possibility of the post-oil world and California's unique opportunity to benefit from new technologies and policies. She is also looking at the unexpected complications of alternative fuels and energy efficiency.
She
has been published in The Atlantic, New York Times online, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, Discover, Salon, among other publications. Her column, "Money Tales," which combined economics and oral history in the San Francisco Chronicle online, won an Excellence in Journalism award from the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists in 2003.
In 1999-2000, she was awarded a Sundance Fellowship. She is a graduate of Yale University.
See her recent work on the cost of transportation for American families at: http://energytrap.org
Here's her TED presentation on the political chemistry of the Gulf Oil Spill: http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_margonelli_the_political_chemistry_of_oil.html
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Further Reading
Visit the book's website for some pre-lecture insight!