known as E10 or “gasohol.”
Because America is the Saudi Arabia of corn.
Rewinding a bit to 1911, Standard Oil had
an effective monopoly on the petroleum industry
through a number of unfair business practices
– it even owned the railroads its competitors
used.
So the federal government ordered its breakup
under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
It broke up into 34 different companies.
Standard Oil of New Jersey was the largest
and eventually became known simply by the
initials S.O. for Standard Oil.
People said it so often that it rebranded
as Esso, and later, Exxon.
Standard Oil of New York became known as Socony
– for Standard Oil Company of New York,
and later Mobil.
These two companies merged in 1998 to form
ExxonMobil, which is currently the largest
petroleum company in the United States.
Standard Oil of California, or SoCal, used
this logo… you might see where I’mgoing
with this already, but if not, this shape
is known as a Chevron, and the company rebranded
accordingly.
Several other companies that were bought up
by these two also have portmanteau names,
like the Continental Oil Company, or Conoco.
The Southern United States Oil Company, or
Sunoco, and so on.
Standard Oil was never able to capture the
market in Texas, but the two largest companies
located there, Texaco and Gulf Oil, were later
bought by BP.
Marathon was a Texan oil company that was
bought by Standard Oil, but then split off
during the 1911 break up and remains the fourth
largest oil company in the US.
In sum, a monopoly was broken up and over
the course of a century, merged into an oligopoly
of only four companies, which dominate the
US market.
Globally, at least until the 1960s, the petroleum
industry was controlled by a group