B Y KEVIN HART
As I was driving down Poultney’s Main Street earlier this semester, I noticed an amazing sight. The red and blue color scheme of the Exxon station had become an orange and blue color scheme of Gulf. For four years I waited for a moment like this.
Before 2005, when I came to GMC as a freshman, I drove my car everywhere and bought gas from whatever station was “at the right place at the right time.” I did not responsibly select gas stations based on my ethics, and I paid no attention to the fact that I was supporting agents of Earth’s destruction. But, then I came to GMC.
During my first semester, I enrolled in the typical freshman class “Environmental Ethics,” a class that encouraged an ethical reflection on our relationship with the environment. This relationship is all too frequently a delicate one, as proven by the drastic example of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, which dumped at least 10.8 million gallons into the Prince William Sound, one of the last remaining marine ecosystems in unspoiled condition at the time. It was then that I decided I had to act on my ethics. No longer would I support Exxon’s destructive habits by driving too much and buying gas from them. I decided it was time to buy my gasoline from elsewhere.
So I turned to the huge selection of gas stations available in Poultney. An Exxon, a Mobil, and a Stewarts. How relieving, I didn’t have to buy my gas from Exxon. Or did I? Turns out, buying gas from Mobil will support the executives of Exxon, some way or another. That’s unacceptable! Oh, but thank goodness, I could still buy my gas from Stewarts. I didn’t learn for a little while from then that Stewarts, while not a gigantic corporation, bought their gas from Exxon-Mobil. Then, the frustration set in. How come students at Green Mountain College, of all colleges, are most readily supplied with gasoline from those companies?
Finally, after three years of trying not to buy gas in Poultney, I saw a sign appear on the side of Exxon’s building, “We’re going Gulf!” I was instantly elated. It took me until I was a second-semester senior before seeing this change, but that’s better than nothing. For the remainder of my college career, I can buy gas with a clear conscience in Poultney. I encourage everyone to buy their gas based on ethics. Poultney now gives you this option.
