Both of these, except environmental reason is at the top of my list. some people say im "getting bent over by gas prices and i shouldnt let it control my life".. well i say that as a society we waste too much and i want to be as practical efficient as i can. I've reduced my garbage by 30% just by starting a compost in my backyard, I make sure not to leave any lights on, and i keep my house at a cool 65 in the winter, and no longer use paper towels or disposable wipes / cleaning products. And can you believe some people think i'm some sort of hippy? When will being more environmentally responsible become the norm, instead of seeing who can have the biggest most expensive car.

<rant> And sponges DONT SPREAD BACTERIA! JUST PUT A DROP OF SOAP ON IT!... every day i see commercials from big compaies trying to make their products more and more disposable. Baseball size cleaning devices that you throw away each time you clean your toilet? clorox and pledge wipes that are somehow better than a rag and a spray can or a sponge and a drop of dish soap? Swiffer Pads! Are you freaking kidding me?! every time i clean my floor i'm going to make extra garbage when a broom and a dust buster could fulfil the job just as easily? And people actually buy into this crap and it makes me furious!.. oh what else, a tub of 50 small armorall wipes costs as much as a whole 1/2 gallon of it in spray form + washable rag! </rant>

People who actually read my rant, please take into consideration what you are buying and how in the long run, its costing you, and our environment MORE money and space. dont fill our garbage dumps with one-time use products, buy a real towel to set next to the sink, dont reach for a paper one. and RECYCLE! you might not even check, but every piece of plastic that has that recycle logo on the bototm (solo cups included) can be brought to the recycle center instead of the dump..

I also am co-owner of an ECM solutions business converting other business to paperless it that says anything about how i feel about waste :p

There could be some truth to that for the middle eastern oil companies, however most of the cash made up North (Suncor, PetroCanada, EnCana, Conoco Phillips-Canada, Syncrude) usually ends up getting reinvested into big projects which support the construction, fabrication & engineering staff... as well as their share holders. These big companies generally don't like to hold onto a lot of idle cash because it makes them a target for takeover, they usually dump it into projects, issue dividends or buy up other companies instead.

Also despite what Greenpeace f@ggots are saying, the Oilsands have a ridiculous environmental program in place, literally billions are spent on additional facilities such as scrubbers, ultra-clean co-gens and cleaner ways to refine crude using less water and putting out less emissions that what is done overseas. They are even spending billions of dollars on underground storage of CO2 emissions now. The nature of the industry makes them an easy target for idiots from Greenpeace and Sierra Club.

I can still remember that rusty Greenpeace boat protesting something when I was in BC... it had an oil slick behind it because it was leaking and the government ordered it into drydock because it was violating environmental standards... then the giant messes they left when they protest logging or fish farming. Our own city had to haul out 3 tons of garbage from their protest grounds. I f#cking hate those idiots. Most of the stuff they say is complete mis-information to the extreme.