Summer is nearly upon us. This season will feature two major events brought to you by our legislators in Washington: the rapid phaseout of the gasoline additive MTBE and the introduction of ultra-lowsulfur diesel. And with domestic refineries running on the edge of demand and strained domestic supplies of ethanol, the likelihood of a more-than- mildly-interesting summer is very high. It will be exciting!

Amidst all the excitement, you may want some quiet time to gain perspective on the forces that are shaping the business of motor fuels marketing. The titles below are recommended reading for marketers that want to relax this summer, but not too much. The information you glean from these books could possibly be useful in your business.

The Bottomless Well, by Peter W. Huber and Mark P. Mills, is subtitled “The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy.” The authors offer an understandable accounting of our past and present energy technologies. Energy trends that are currently underway provide a fairly clear picture of where we are headed.

A Poverty of Reason, by Wilfred Beckerman is a very portable 76-page discussion of the myths and truths of human impact on the environment. Beckerman challenges the conventional thinking on “sustainable development” and passionately argues that the road to a better future environment begins with improving world economic conditions.

Danish professor Bjorn Lomborg compiles a massive collection of environmental data in The Skeptical Environmentalist. The chapters on Energy and Global Warming are most pertinent to our business. If you ever wondered where to get the facts on the world environment, this is the place.

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat provides an easily accessible description of globalization. Oil is definitely (as we all know) traded on a global market. Friedman does an excellent job of describing how the pieces fit together in our global economy.

In Collapse, Jared Diamond takes the subject of globalization to a whole new level. This book is a fascinating comparative history of civilizations that have failed and thrived. Diamond explores the impact of human activity on the environment in terms of whether or not the society continues to exist. Ultimately, he finds hope in the modern world because of our interconnectedness and access to information.

The subtitle to Thomas P. M. Bartlett’s The Pentagon’s New Map is “War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century.” Bartlett is an analyst and professor at the U.S. Naval War College who articulates a national military strategy. This book gives a very persuasive argument of what we are fighting for and what we can expect to accomplish with our military.

QBQ, by John G. Miller, is the kind of book that you will want to share with your coworkers. It asks what you can do to make a difference “at work and in life.” Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is another quick and interesting read that you will want to pass around.

I believe the best writer of the baby boom generation is Michael Crichton. In State of Fear, Crichton entertains and educates on the environmental movement. It’s a fun story with a message.

Finally, if you are pressed for time this summer and have only a few minutes for reading, the one title you can grab is Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham. All you need to know about marketing motor fuels, or marketing anything, is in there.

Bill Shipley III
SIGMA President