VTECLuvaLuva

Got this email yesterday....someone is trying a nationwide boycott of gas...Here are the details.

Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 10:17 AM
Subject: LET'S DO IT


one week from today Wed. 19th mark your calendars


IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT
PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE
OIL
COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.


AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF
OVER
4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.



THEREFORE MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT TO THEM" DAY AND
THE
PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.



THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY
PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.



WAITING ON THIS ADMIINSTRATION TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT
GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES
THAT
THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO?



REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT
THE
SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES
ARE
FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS
SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL
SUPPLIES
ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!



WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY,
WE
WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.



SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU
KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE MAY 19TH A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF
THE
UNITED STATES SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

provench

I have a better idea for America ... stop driving gas guzzling SUV's and cars

tnguyen88

When will people realize that these "protests" don't work. Why? Cause people who don't buy gas will just buy it tomorrow, the next day, or so on.

If you believe that this will work, then I've got a few e-mails you'll need to forward, or else you'll have years of bad luck.

I agree with Provench...

phile

You need a bigger campaign for this to work. Something like the campaigns that alleged buying SUVs supports terrorism, where it was broadcasted on TV. So yeah, something like that, just not as absurd.

VTECLuvaLuva

I didn't say that I was the originator of this little protest so don't get the wrong idea, and I never said it would work...it was just an FYI.

Bass Mechanic

nothing against the original poster but seriously, if my car needs gas and i need to go to work. are you really expecting me to just stay home and be a vegtable just because i should follow suit and not buy gas today?
seriously if such a thing were to happen how about you plan for it and make it on a weekend? well actually there never really is a good time to have a strike on fuel. and even if i didnt buy gas or the few thousand people reading this board it wouldnt affect anything in the economey.
now a better strategy would be to avoid certain gas stations and cause part of the industry to suffer, that i could work with!

dom

This would be nice, but its unfortunately totally unrealistic.

Gas was at 91.2 cents a litre here on Toronto this morning, the highest I can ever remember it being, and you know what, the pumps were still full.

Botcotting Exxon or Esso is a great idea, but again it just won't happen.

phile

We got a thinker here! That's pretty good since we can't avoid buying gas if we need to. It doesn't even have to be the entire nation, I bet if the majority of California drivers decide to boycott Exxon one day, Sunoco the next day, etc., some changes are going to be made.

bob shiftright

This might actually "work"

The reason it might actually "work" is that DOE is going to release the weekly petroleum stockpile numbers at 10:30 AM EST TODAY. The consensus among oil traders is that if crude oil buildup is more than 4 million barrels and gasoline buildup is more than 2 million barrels we can expect prices to go down ... at least for the next WEEK!

CLICK HERE

The way it will "work" is the same way that human sacrifices change the weather and bring on spring or throwing salt over your left shoulder with your right hand avoids exposure to the devil's machinations, or a rabbit's foot "works" as a lucky charm.

I'd have to guess that whoever started this "chain letter" knows about the DOE data release on Wednesdays!

I'll also guess that you that if you took the trouble to count cars at any gas station today you wouldn't see much decrease in traffic.

We import about half of our fuel needs, and only about half is used for gasoline, 2/3 of the world's known oil reserves are in the Middle East, so if everyone junked their SUVs and bought a TSX it still wouldn't make any difference, we'd still be dependendent on Middle Eastern oil. And even if we didn't buy the oil, the Indians and Chinese would be happy to buy it. Oil is a fungible commodity, it doesn't matter if it comes from Alaska, Saudi Arabia or Nigeria, it all burns the same.

I've been in favor of a tariff on imported oil for years, in order to encourage domestic exploration and alternative fuels, but the domestic environmentalists won't have that.

VTECLuvaLuva

I have to agree with all of you and say that the boycott would only work if it were for an extended amount of time against a particular oil company. Sad to say it seems like we are doomed to high oil prices for some time.

What's the highest you've seen?

I live in Delaware now and i've seen as high as 2.28USD/gal or .84 CAD/liter for 94 octane.

If your in the US multiply your price by .37 to get it into CAD.
If your in Canada multiply your price by 2.72 to get it into USD.

randomBboy

this will not work for 2 reasons
1. gasoline is a small amount of an oil company's production
2. gasoline companies sell to each other crude

this will ultimately do nothing ecept hurt the actual gas station owners pocket, not the oil company as a whole

link to debunking this

as far as a simple "do not buy gas on this day" scheme that is just stupidity as you are stilll going to buy gas on another day. this ultimately does nothing.
link to debunking that myth

a thing that "may" work is a "ride you bike to work" MONTH.. but then again, that may actually raise gas prices due to smaller amounts being sold and companies wanting to keep their profit margin up..

think of this..
for some reason no one has any trouble paying $1.50 for a 20oz. bottled WATER. i do not see too many people complaining about that..

also
prices to reach $3.40 a gallon ahhh

my post of the month

b~

dom

I agree with everything you've written except what I quoted. I've seen this argument used several times about gas being cheaper than Milk, Juice etc. But the fact remains that you don't have to buy 17 Gallons (55L) of Milk per week. But you do need to buy 17 Gallons of gas per week to keep your car running.

And if you really were concerned about bottled water pricing, you could always drink from the tap.

randomBboy

i know it is just a fun quote..
it is really like comparing apples to oranges..

b~

dabuda

problem is there is a tax writeoff for suvs greater then 6000lbs. basically if you have a biz, you can writeoff the purchase price of the vehicle up to $100k granted you use it 100% for your biz.

dabuda

my tank is 3/4 full so no need to fill up today...yay boycott!

fdl

I've been seeing emails like this for the past 3 years. They are annoying chain mail. There is no way something like this could ever work.

bob shiftright

Adjusted for inflation gasoline is still cheaper than it was when Carter was President! IF something is cheaper than water, people will waste it like water. To put any sort of a dent in consumption would still require an enormous price increase. (Double, again?) I'm paying much less for gasoline (and I buy about 20 gallons/week) than I was spending for my train commutation tickets into New York!

BTW, I AM "boycotting" today since 2 cars have full tanks and 1 has 3/4!

LeMasseHammer

I have trouble understanding why so many Americans think they have some God-given right to purchase gas for under $2/gallon. I know it would be quite a shock to the economy at first, but I would like to see gas prices increase toward levels seen overseas. I'm not a rich guy, but I'm willing to sacrafice for the privilige of burning excessive amounts of fuel in my car, if that's what I want to do. Up until now, it seems like there just wasn't enough disincentive for wasting gas.

Bait

That is the stupidest idea. Who does this person think they will pass the $4.6 B on to?

LeMasseHammer

If I had a choice, I'd like my extra contribution to go towards building some nicer roads. And maybe pay the salaries of firefighters or other public servants.

The point isn't where the money goes, but what incentives/disincentives are created.

If natual supply and demand market forces end up pushing the price of gas up, I don't understand the harm.

Maybe I'm just oversimplifying or overlooking some of the factors involved. But all the whining about $2 gas makes me think we've got an inflated sense of entitlement.

Stevestr

I laugh at your $2.289 and raise you this:



CDN that is around $1.16/litre. (1.1618 using the above conversion.)

This is the highest station I have seen in San Diego and IT STILL HAD A CAR OR TWO AT IT!



The average prices here are more like:



CDN that is around $0.93/litre. (0.9361 using the above conversion.)

:'( :'(

Thank god for Costco and their holding at $2.459 (CDN $0.90/litre [0.9065])!

Stevestr

Sadly in SoCal you will never have that choice. The public transit goons are just waiting to get their hands on the monies that we pay at the pump. :'(

Helicobacter Pylori

Funny I got this

Ozzman

This whole boycott is completely ridiculous. I might go fill up my car today just to show all of these people who think such a dumb idea can work. If no one bought gas today at all, imagine the record days they would have had yesterday and tomorrow, negating any effect of the boycott.


The trick is getting people to use less gas on a regular basis, not just one day.

Here is a good link explaining:

Gas Hoax

ron

Don't forget your government taxing gasoline! California (2002) $.504/gal, Texas $.384/gal Okla. $.354/gal
The government also taxes the oil industry so that nearly 42% of the cost of a gallon of gasoline is from taxes. One article in NCPA-Daily Digest states that in 2001 major oil companies earned $50.8 billion from their products and the government collected $78 billion in taxes from them. Getting a barrel of oil out of the ground, transporting it to the refinery, and processing it so we can get the gasoline we want is not a cheap or easy process.

OTT-TSX

Gas in the UK is running about $5.30 a gallon. Food for thought.

ABP-CL9-TSX

I saw people at the gas stations yesterday, obiviously, something like this will have little impact.

TSX 'R' US

I filled up yesterday...

Gas is cheapest here on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (before they jump up 5-10 cents/gal for the weekend)...so since I didn't fill up Tuesday, there's no way I'm not gonna fill up Wednesday :P

sauceman

This is just a plain ridiculous argument. Their taxation system is completely different. Plus, just take a look at where their economy is at. Most European countries have been suffering from 0 if not negative GDP growth, in good part because of ridiculous living costs over there. They are headed in a dead end. The Euro which normally should help them is dragging their economy down.

All in all don't quote Europe as an example while their economy is less than enviable. They should be cited as an example of what not to do, gas policies included.