“Ethical Oil” is an organization that is pushing people to buy oil from feminist/liberal countries rather than countries with different value systems. A quick glance at the website indicates that the oil the organization is promoting is largely that derived from the Athabascan oil sands, a vast deposit of heavy crude mixed in with soil in western Canada. The oil sands comprise one of the world’s largest reservoirs of oil, but there is a catch: the crude must be mined and separated from the sand and clay before it can be sent to the refinery, unlike the light sweet crudes of Arabia. This is a huge industrial undertaking, requiring some of the world’s heaviest machinery and a great deal of energy which, necessarily, creates a lot of pollution.
Because of the dirty nature of the extraction process, a lot of environmentalists are opposed to mining this oil, and political resistance is growing. Apparently, someone figured that the solution would be to market this oil as feminist and homosexual oil, which morally elevates it above sexist (Muslim) and chauvinist (South American) oil.
Here’s what Ethical Oil has to say about itself:
EthicalOil.org encourages people, businesses and governments to choose Ethical Oil from Canada, its oil sands and other liberal democracies. Unlike Conflict Oil from some of the world’s most politically oppressive and environmentally reckless regimes, Ethical Oil is the “Fair Trade” choice in oil.
Countries that produce Ethical Oil protect the rights of women, workers, indigenous peoples and other minorities including gays and lesbians. Conflict Oil regimes, by contrast, oppress their citizens and operate in secret with no accountability to voters, the press or independent judiciaries…
In an ad condemning sexist oil, ethical oil condemns Saudi sexism, saying we have to choose Canada’s oil, because unlike Western women, Saudi women are not allowed to drive around town and disobey their husbands:
I’m sure their motives are pure, and profit has absolutely nothing to do with this political ad…
