Gasolinegate Public Education Campaign

Hi, my name is Burl Haigwood, and I am the co-author of Gasolinegate.

Would you give a buck if you knew what’s in your gasoline is killing you?

The goal of my consumer-funded Gasolinegate public education campaign is simple. Give as many people as possible the opportunity to read Gasolinegate so they will understand the total societal cost of gasoline and its negative impact on everyone worldwide. (Chapter 2: The True Cost of Gasoline: Consumers Pay the Ultimate Price and Chapter 10 - Environmental Justice: Death by Breath)

What’s My Why?

For decades, people told me the public doesn’t care what’s in their gasoline or its impact on them or the nation -- as long as gasoline is available and cheap. My response remains the same – people who don’t care don’t know.

We priced the Gasolinegate eBook on Amazon for 99 cents to prove people care; they are mad as hell, don’t want to be duped by oil companies and their political representatives anymore, and will give a buck to the education campaign.

I believe the public would pay back, or pay forward, by contributing to the campaign if they understood the current cheaper, better, faster, safer 10% renewable fuel standard has been proven to save drivers about 25 cents per gallon – or $5 every time they fill up. (Chapter 2: The True Cost of Gasoline, Page 68)

If you can’t afford $1 to fund the campaign or buy a Gasolinegate eBook from Amazon – I will email you a free copy. If you are a professor, I will send you an eBook for each of your students.

My co-author Doug Durante and I wrote Gasolinegate because very few Americans know they are breathing unnecessarily high levels of benzene-laced, carcinogenic emissions from their vehicles. We suffer from womb-to-tomb because the U.S. Congress and EPA have continuously failed to improve the standard for gasoline to the greatest extent possible – which the Clean Air Act Amendments 1990 require (see video footnote).

Like the successful education campaigns to ban leaded gasoline, reduce smoking, fight drug addiction, and fight misinformation campaigns about climate change -- I hope you will help fund my Gasolinegate public education campaign to make sure the public knows that “What’s in Their Gasoline is Killing Them,” and that there are cheaper, better, faster, and safer biofuel alternatives.

The solution is technically possible, environmentally sound, and easy to comprehend. Replace carcinogenic benzene-laced octane additives with more lower-carbon, cleaner-burning, higher-octane, lower-cost domestically produced renewable liquid fuels that can be used in all vehicles. However, decades of misinformation campaigns have created political and regulatory obstacles.

If you would like to learn more and choose to donate to the public education campaign, I will send you a link to download a free Gasolinegate eBook. Gasolinegate has 300+ citations and links to 1,000+ validated research studies validating the threat of this dangerous public health crisis.

We wrote Gasolinegate so the average consumer, journalist, and Congressional representative could clearly understand the issues and why the public got duped into believing gasoline was safe and that there were no alternatives. After you read Gasolinegate, you will know more about this issue than 99.9% of the people on the planet.

Did you know that in 1948, the American Petroleum Institute publicly stated that “the safe threshold is ZERO?” Or that we ingest more pounds of air than water or food? Preventing consumers from purchasing higher volumes of higher-octane, lower-carbon, cleaner-burning, less expensive, and domestically produced renewable transportation fuels threatens your environmental, energy, economic, food, and national security. This violates environmental justice and your constitutional rights to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.

For over 100 years, the oil industry duped the public and coerced Congress and federal agencies to protect its gasoline market. As a result, consumers waste billions of dollars, public health is compromised, and America remains captive to foreign oil – which, as every American should know - funds nation-states that don’t have our best interest at heart.

It’s not all doom and gloom. The information in Gasolinegate and the public education campaign also provides good news for anyone who cares about the environment, the price of health care and gasoline, the future of biotechnology, the economy, job creation, and protecting our nation’s food supply.

Do you care enough to know and know enough to care? Please go to www.gasolinegate.com and take the "Do you Know What's in Your Gasoline" quiz. You can learn more about the total societal costs of gasoline, the chemicals in gasoline, the harm benzene-related emissions cause our bodies from womb to tomb, how other countries are making more progress than the United States, what other subject matter experts think, and how you can make consumer choices that make a difference in the air you and your family breathe.

Here is a summary of the Gasolinegate public education projects that need funding. A report providing a full accounting of the use of funds will be provided to donors for each phase of the campaign.

Phase 1: Gasolinegate Audiobook Production: Requesting $3,000 in funding to have an abridged average consumer-friendly audiobook professionally produced. This project will support other phases of the education campaign and educate those who prefer not to read or can’t read.

Phase 2: Gasolinegate Society of Environmental Journalists Outreach Campaign: Requesting $5,000 in funding for a paid intern to help build a targeted journalists database for a LinkedIn, email, and call campaign. Pay for the attendance and an exhibit booth at the annual SEJ conference in April 2024 to pass out copies of Gasolinegate and other research materials to attendees.

Phase 3: Gasolinegate Social Media News Campaign: Requesting $10,000 in funding for a paid intern to help continue to build the database of targeted journalists for a LinkedIn, email, and call campaign. Daily news stories will be connected to the research in Gasolinegate to help educate the public, journalists, and Congress using LinkedIn, X, emails, calls, and other social media interactions, and to give away copies of Gasolinegate. You can see examples at https://twitter.com/burl_haigwood

Phase 4: Gasolinegate Documentary: Requesting $100,000 in funding, leverage the research and supporters of Gasolinegate to produce a documentary. The documentary will reach people who don’t have the time or skills to read more and become educated about the interconnected environmental, energy, economic, and national security issues and Gasolinegate.

Here are actions you can take to support the Gasolinegate public education campaign: learn more, stay informed, and be an engaged public health advocate for you and your family.

✔ Contribute to the Gasolinegate GoFundMe public education campaign.

✔ Please read Gasolinegate. I will send you a link for a free Gasolinegate eBook if that will help.

✔ Please take the What's In Your Gasoline Quiz and learn more about Gasolinegate @ www.gasolinegate.com

✔ Search for "Gasolinegate" on YouTube and watch the You Don't Know Jack About What's in Your Gasoline cartoon

✔ Please like our Gasolinegate Facebook Page @ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084183754428

✔ Follow me on X (Twitter) @burl_haigwood (https://twitter.com/burl_haigwood) and search for and use #Gasolinegate.

Thank you very much for your consideration and any support you can provide.

Sincerely,

Burl Haigwood

Author, Gasolinegate

What's My Why?

Why isn't there a benzene warning label on every retail gasoline pump in the world!

The consumer warning and scientific information below is provided by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment @ www.P65Warings.ca.gov

General Fact Sheets and Resources

American Cancer Society: Benzene and Cancer Risk

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR): Benzene Warning

US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA): Benzene Warning

World Health Organization (WHO): Exposure to Benzene A Major Health Concern

Scientific Information on Benzene

World Health Organization (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC): IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, vol. 100 F (2012). “Benzene” in Chemical Agents and Related Occupations, pages 249-294.

California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA): Benzene Reference Exposure Levels

Meet Jack the Fuel Test Dummy in the video People Don't Know Jack About What's in Their Gasoline