Get Oil Out is committed to helping America get over oil and our collective oil addiction.  Most importantly, our board is committed to kicking its own oil addiction first.  Many of our board members are involved in rigorous Oil Addiction Rehabilitation Programs.  Many have solar powered homes and use alternative fuel vehicles, but there is still much more to be done.  The important thing, however, is that we beging the healing with ourselves.  How can we hope to lead, if not by example?

First, we must use the alternatives ourslelves and demonstrate that they work.

For example:  our president has lived in a solar powered home for 17 years.  His vehicle is powered by 99.9% biodiesel–a renewable fuel, and he is working diligently to reduce unnecessary consumption of plastics, chemical cleaning agents, synthetic materials, fuel-intensive farm products and enjoying membership in a local Community Supported Agriculture program.  Thus far he reports no negative impacts on quality of life whatsoever. But this is just the beginning and there is still much work to be done.

The general public must be made aware of the value of switching to cleaner sources of energy AND the availability of clean energy technology and products.

One of the biggest problems is obvious:  Our vehicles.

in 2000 GOO helped to establish the first alternative fuel co-op in Santa Barbara to create an opportunity for people to choose between fossil fuels and alternative fuels.  Until that time, there was only one choice: petrolem products.  People felt trapped in thier oil addiction and contented themselves that “nothing could be done about it because there wasn’t any choice at the pump.”  GOO helped to change that in Santa Barbara.  The result was the establishment of numerous alternative fueling stations and biodiesel manufacturing co-ops in Santa Barbara County. Now, at least there is a choice when it comes to fueling your vehicle.

But this is just the beginning.  Electric cars are on the way, which offers us hope.  However the electrical grid is not ready to support them.  The situation is this: if there was just one electric vehicle per residential block, the entire grid in Santa Barbara County would fail.  To prevent this from happening we need to support the grid with the implementaion of widespread distributed electrial generation using solar and wind power and comprehensive energy efficiency measures.

There are programs to help with this being implemented now such as Santa Barbara’s EMPower Financing Program.  Empower will help Santa Barbara County residents to afford to install the energy efficiency retrofits and solar power systems that will heip support the electrical grid as we transition from fossil fuel vehicles.

Clearly there is much to be done.  But it is most important that we begin with ourselves.  If we can’t change our own oil addiction, how can we heal our country?

Its time to start your journey.  To learn more, please visit the following sites and check back to this page as we will be updating it regularly with oil addiction recovery success stories.