The real lesson here is, no matter what you do some of YOUR money is going to be used to elect leaders that YOU don't agree with. But you still have to drive, sometimes. At least you can buy your gas from companies that TRY to minimize their impact on the environment, and give a more equitable portion of their donations to the Democrats.

Whenever you can, fill up at these stations:

OK, I have a short list.

I'd been filling up at Sunoco. They don't buy Saudi oil and their refineries can't handle high sulfur crude. They are, by necessity, fairly "green". Then I find out that they're pushing for the election of 3 more Republicans so that they can start desecrating the Alaskan wilderness. So I'm looking for a new station, too.

Rumor has it that BP is fairly green as oil companies go. They ranked second in contributions to the Democratic party at 34% of their donations to federal parties and candidates. Meanwhile, the "boycottbush" site has BP listed in the top 25 Republican donors. Shell actually gave more to Democrats, but it will take some digging to see how much of that went to psychos like Zell Miller. I dunno. I just don't trust oil companies. For now, see if you can find your local station on open secrets and decide for yourself, or just default to Shell unless we learn otherwise.

Update from DU/opensecrets 11/08/04 (Thanks to "69KV"):

These are the only two. The best of a bad lot. Boycott ALL the others:
Shell Oil, #14 in Oil & Gas, $188,898, 57% to Dems, 43% to Republicans.
Citgo, donations not large enough to appear on the Open Secrets top 20 for its industry, owned by Venezuela's state owned oil company.

Where SHOULDN'T you buy gas?

Greenpeace announced ... that it would focus its Global Warning campaign on Exxon/Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, Conoco and Phillips, seeking to hurt their markets outside the United States until they withdraw their support for the Bush administration's rejection of the international agreement to protect the climate, the Kyoto Protocol. International condemnation of the Bush Administration's position is nearly unanimous from governments around the world.

Eight major oil companies, together with the Petroleum Marketers Association, donated $12.5 million to Congressional candidates and the parties in the last 6 years; 75% of this donation went to Republicans. Atlantic Richfield (ARCO), Chevron, Exxon and Amoco alone gave more than a million dollars each during this period, with ARCO topping the league table with $3.4 million in donations. Enron, a natural gas company, also gave over $1million. Altogether these these fossil fuel producers gave over 70% of their contributions to Republicans.

Ride by those stations on fumes, if you have to.

Of course, there are lots of reasons to just plain limit your driving. In 2004 the oil industry donated $17,790,307 to political parties, 19% of it to Democrats and 81% of it to the GOP, $2,313,440 to Bush, $253,650 to Kerry. This is the lowest percentage donated to the Democrats in history! Car pooling, combining trips to multiple locations, anything you can do to limit your gas consumption not only helps defund the GOP, but it helps the environment, saves wear and tear on your car (not to mention your nerves), and it saves you money.