Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World…

by Edwin Black

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Book details

Title	Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives
Author	Edwin Black
Rating
Tags	energy, cars, electric, hydrogen, global, warming, corporations
Collections	Your library
Your review	Drawing on 58 pages of references and sources, including the court proceedings in United States vs National City Lines, this book is both an excellent survey of the shameful catalog of failings in motive power in the last century, and an authoritative deeper resource. In Black's chapter on the GM Conspiracy he refers to specific testimony from the actual court proceedings, giving an accurate portrayal of the unfolding events in which GM and its co-conspirators Firestone, Standard Oil, and others ripped up electrified transit infrastructure, and put dearly loved electric streetcars to the torch. He adds balance by noting the relative size percentage-wise of infrastructure destroyed and explaining that the conspirators campaign didn't really intend to promote the private car. I knew about the conspiracy before reading the book but the myriad extra details this book unearths reveals the ruthlessness and illegality of what they did - for example I did not realize that on one of the two charges the conspirators were convicted. Drenched in factual accounts and historical details as it is, the book is still readable and engaging. It does not come across as a polemic either. Its drawbacks as a book are mostly in that it fails to bring a coherent message across the chapters, although each chapter tends to work reasonably well as an essay in its own right. My main argument with Black is his avowed love of hydrogen technologies, laid out as a manifesto in his chapter "Hydrogen Solution". Here he appears to lose his balance, and is effusive in his praise of the Honda FCX hydrogen car, clearly swayed by his personal experience in the vehicle. He does not treat at all the love affairs of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle proponents with their chosen solution to the energy problem. The book is an eye-opener and works well in its goal of lifting the lid on how dirty the corporations are, and why we cannot leave to the corporations the earths much needed salvation in an energy solution for transit and transport. In this uncovering role Black's journalistic style shines. My take home message from the book: the free market is not free, as long as the GMs, Standard Oils and other players break the rules and get away with it. As I write this review the Obama administration has slashed funding for Hydrogen initiatives - these very same initiatives being implicated in the killing of the electric car (see Sherry Boscherts book "Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars which will Recharge America" for more on that). Black's book finishes up with a two page epilogue titled "The Green Fleet Initiative". Again here in the offering solutions department Black is out of his strong suit, but the idea is a sound one. Fleets are the place to begin the green car revolution. Let hope it happens soon.
Other authors 1
Publication	St. Martin's Griffin (2007), Paperback, 432 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	031235908X / 9780312359089
LC classification
Dewey	909
Subjects	Automobiles › History Fossil fuels › Environmental aspects Internal combustion engines › History Petroleum as fuel Power resources
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired
Date started
Date finished	2009-05-11
Summary 1	Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives by Edwin Black (2007)
Comments
BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Wikipedia citation
Data source	amazon.com