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Analysis Of The Article ' How America Can Free Itself Of Oil Profitability

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The excessive use of oil in the United States has been a very controversial debate with American experts and scientists. In his article “How America Can Free Itself of Oil-Profitability,” Amory Lovins addresses the many different issues associated with excessive oil consumption and the risks versus the benefits. Amory Lovins is a physicist, environmental scientist, writer, and Chairman/Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written numerous research articles arguing for the use of renewable energy and alternatives for oil. Lovins also regularly gives presentations to other environmentalists discussing the pros and cons of oil consumption. It is clear that his target audience is the demographic of academics, scientists, …show more content…

In paragraph 6 Lovins states that “Inefficient light trucks and cars, which consume 40% of our oil, are at the center of our oil habit. And ultralight and ultrastrong materials for vehicles are the No. 1 enabling technology for changing that.” He reaffirms this point with many more facts and statistics throughout this article. Lovins’ other main point is the benefit of using biofuels as a substitute for oil. He encourages his point of view in paragraph one on page three by saying that “Oil industry giants like Shell and BP are already preparing to move beyond oil by transforming themselves into energy companies.”
Lovins’ argument is valid and provides good evidence to support his point of view. He mainly uses logos in his arguments. This article is full of statistics which may make the argument valid, but does not necessarily make it a good, well rounded argument. Although Lovins did a very good job using logos, he missed some very easy opportunities to use ethos and pathos in his argument as well. Providing information on how much America’s overconsumption of oil is negatively affecting the environment would be a very effective method of using ethos and pathos in his argument without deviating from his “logos-style” of writing. To effectively use ethos and pathos, Lovins could have provided statistics on how many

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