An O.A.A. group is whatever the folks in your area make of it. There are numerous ways or reducing our dependence on oil and, given the current state of the world, we likely need all of them. While we at O.A.A. National believe that each group needs to pick the solution that will work for their area and the specific needs and strengths of their group, we felt it would be handy to offer a few suggestions for a place to start:

1) Work to pass a Greenfleets resolution for your campus, city, or state.
A Greenfleets resolution is one way to ensure that the vehicles your institutions buy have a high fuel economy. Institutional buyers (cities, campuses, businesses etc.) buy over 30% of the vehicles on the road today. Improving the fuel efficiency of those vehicles will go a long way to improving your community, changing the decisions of gas guzzling auto manufacturers, and lessening our dependence on oil.

2) Adopt your local automotive dealer.
The Adopt-a-Dealer program is an easy way for anyone and everyone to get involved in the movement to break our oil addiction. Forming a coalition between local residents and auto dealers serves as an effective tool in reforming the automotive companies and changing corporate practice. Essentially, if you can get the dealers to demand more fuel-efficient vehicles, the auto companies should deliver. Download an Adopt-a-Dealer action pack now!

3) Start working on the Alternatives.
In order to end our addiction to oil, we need to transition to something else. We know already that countless alternatives exist, but due to the structure of power, they aren't being implemented. Since the auto and oil companies won't show the alternatives, it is up to us. So start your own bio-diesel collective and supply your community with alternative fuel. Start your own Plug-in Electric Hybrid working group and help get cities to commit to placing soft orders (check out www.pluginpartners.com for more information). Start a wind or solar project. Start a bicycle collective to build bike lanes. Start critical masses or figure out your own way to end oil addiction. The sky is the limit and no idea is too big or too small to get us started.

4) Become a member of the Oil Enforcement Agency (O.E.A.)
The O.E.A. is an action group that directly confronts, challenges and creatively protests oil and oil selling dealers wherever it finds them. Visit www.oilenforcementagency.com, take the oath and start busting climate criminals!

5) Become a Neighborhood Oil-Watch Block Parent.
Oil addiction is a disease that must be fought neighborhood by neighborhood across the globe. Start the fight today by getting your neighbors together for a meeting and by putting a neighborhood oil-watch sign in your window -- officially becoming a safe haven for petroholics that are seeking to end their addiction. Contact nooilwatch@globalexchange.org to get signs or SUV tickets for your neighborhood today.