pick your poison

from The Sierra Club, link here

In the September/October 2001 issue, Sierra published "Pick Your Poison: An Environmentalist's Guide to Gasoline," by Jennifer Hattam and Paul Rauber, in which we tallied the pluses and minuses of the largest U.S. oil companies. Since then, continued consolidation in the industry has further shrunk the field, and new oil spills and pollution releases have blackened some carefully green-washed reputations.

These companies are among the largest and most powerful enterprises on the planet. The complexity of their organization and activities, the vastness of their reach, and the huge number of variables involved make objective ranking difficult. That said, it is possible to lump them into three general categories, as Sierra editorial interns Robynne Boyd and Sarah Ives do below: the "bottom of the barrel" (ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips), the "middle of the barrel" (Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Valero Energy Corporation, and Citgo), and the "top of the barrel" (BP and Sunoco). But you don't have to take our word for it: Review the information we've gathered, and make your own choice. --Paul Rauber, senior editor

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In the United States, drivers consume nearly 400 million gallons of gasoline per day. Many of them are committed environmentalists who are well aware of the true cost of fossil fuel. They drive fuel-efficient cars and carpool but wonder if they could also send a message through where they choose to buy their gas. Sierra reviewed the records of the eight largest U.S. oil companies, and here's what we found:

Bottom of the Barrel

• ExxonMobil
• ConocoPhillips

Middle of the Barrel

• Royal Dutch Shell
• Chevron
• Valero Energy Corporation
• Citgo

Top of the Barrel

• BP
• Sunoco

read some of these. there are some great stats