Why does it seem like the petroleum industry and the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) is in charge of protecting our environment and precious ecosystems? Why is their no U.S. environmental czar?

It’s time to step up to the plate citizens of planet earth. We need leadership and we need green energy alternatives and solutions, and most importantly they need to be implemented ASAP! Harnessing solar, wind and tidal power and producing bio-fuels is all-doable. If this spewing toxic crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico and the die off our protective wetlands, and the price at the pump doesn’t wake us up, what will? Green jobs anyone? Changing our thinking and approach is necessary, lets think out of the box a bit. Lets innovate and reduce our addiction to dirty fossil fuels; we as a collective can do this!

If you are as disgusted as we are with the spewing toxic crude oil in the Gulf Coast, and if you are asking yourself ‘how can I help,’ ‘what can one person do,’ ‘how can I make a difference,’ here’s what you can do to help the situation. Obviously we need energy to run industry and the modern world. Oil and coal powered the 20th century, but we need more environmentally friendly and efficient solutions to power the 21st century. We have the technology to do this by harnessing solar, wind and tidal power, but why are we not putting these abundant free resources to better use? We need to innovate instead of importing foreign oil, thus reducing our reliance on petroleum based products.

The easiest thing that every consumer can do is vote with your dollar. With it being spring-cleaning season, you can make the choice at the register to purchase and use non-petroleum based cleaning products from dish soap and laundry detergent to all-purpose cleaners. There are even natural plant-base car care products on the market that work fantastic while being friendly to people, pets and our environment.

Did you know that if every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 100 oz petroleum-based conventional brand of liquid laundry detergent with a 100 oz plant-derived liquid laundry detergent, 466,000 barrels of oil could be saved – enough to heat and cool 26,800 U.S. homes for a year! I don’t know about you, but I prefer to support our American farmers over foreign oil companies any day.

Next time you head out for some cleaning supplies, check out these natural non-toxic biodegradable household cleaning products: Seventh Generation, Sun & Earth, Ecover, Biokleen, Method and Green Works. Also, if you are into detailing your car or motorcycle by hand, try Zymol, which is a high-end plant-based car care product line that works amazing and smells great too.