National Gas War May 15th

For what its worth, I just received 2 e-mails regarding the high price of gas. One stated that May 15 is a national gas out day. Dont pump any gas that day to protest the high gas prices.

The second one stated that we should stop buying gas at all Exon, and Mobile stations, which are the two biggest oil companies for the rest of the year. This will force them to drop their gas prices to get business back. All other oil companies will ddo the same to remain competative. Please tell everyone you know about this.
The big oil companies want us to think that there is nothing we can do while thay continue to post record profits, and pay their executives multi million dollar salaries. Question. How long can any corporation stay in business if no one buys their poduct?

This was already talked about….see attached thread!

See attached thread<<

Fisheyes,, I was thinking the same thing you’re thinking,, but then I wondered why this would work because people are going to need to buy gas either the day before or the day after. It’s all about consumption. If you can prevent consumption then you may have something here.. I think this guy mentions something about that.. His writing makes sense and seems to be correct, either that or he owns 40,000 shares of Exon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18492185/

It would be nice if the people of this country could get together and actually boycot buying gas on May 15th but the odds on that happening are one in a billion. Too many people out there just don’t care plus with all the businesses, truckers and long-distance commuters I doubt there will be any drop in purchases or consumption on May 15th. I am more than willing to not buy gas on the 15th but getting the rest of America to follow suit will be a challenge.

What I can’t figure out is why the big oil companies have done nothing to alieviate the refinery problems which is their excuse for the current high prices. They have had 3 or 4 years of record breaking profits. You would think that they would have invested at least some of those profits into upgrading existing and building new refineries. The government had predicted back at the end of February that the national average for a gallon of regular gas this spring and summer would not get above $2.87 a gallon. Then the oil companies shut down a few refineries for maintenence, repairs and upgrades right before the peak driving season got here. This is the reason they are giving people for the high prices. The government says there is plenty of supply. The oil refineries just aren’t producing enough or so they tell us.

I will join with you and not purchase any gas on May 15th.

Eyehunter

Not buying gas from Exon or Moblie is a good idea, i don’t anyway and buy at a local chain owned. Not buying gas at any station will get thier attention and they will watch what the publics doing but perposely not driving a day or three to four days will definately drop usage of gasoline. Even if a good size percentage of the population dosen’t drive they will see that usage is down, like alot of people they see usage as the main solution to drop prices. I don’t know much about how much storage they have but if people stop driving a couple days a month they will notice the amount in thier storage facilities. Im going to stay home and tune up the garden tractor motor for something to do on the 15th. Its going to be interisting to see what the 15th does this year, people are starting to organize, if they stay that way they will see results.

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The big oil companies want us to think that there is nothing we can do while thay continue to post record profits, and pay their executives multi million dollar salaries.

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Just curious, why do you think profits are a bad thing? Profit is the reason individuals take risks to fill a consumer need. Do you think there might be some high risk involved in oil and gas exploration, extraction, and refining? I have no problem with companies making profits, and it’s their business what salaries they pay to their coporate leaders. Those companies have boards that answer to us — shareholders. I’m not thrilled with the high gas prices either, but please think it through before you attack the very essence of what makes this country great — free enterprise.

everybody in the nation could boycott gas on the 15th, and its not going to hurt anyone but the gas station owners who operate on thin profits and have nothing to do with setting prices. You are still using the same amount of fuel, just shifting the day you buy it. IF you could get everyone to not use their vehicles for a week or even a day, that would be about the only way to allow the supply to build up and lower prices..Regardless, with these high gas prices, hopefully it will get people rethinking their fuel consumption and buying more fuel efficient vehicles, car pooling, biking or walking when possible. I’ve got a Silverado that I love to drive but opt to take the wife’s Civic when I can even though its THE most uncomfortable car ever made and I hate driving it. But its nice not having to visit the pump every 3 days to drop $75.00 on a tank of fuel

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The big oil companies want us to think that there is nothing we can do while thay continue to post record profits, and pay their executives multi million dollar salaries.

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Just curious, why do you think profits are a bad thing? Profit is the reason individuals take risks to fill a consumer need. Do you think there might be some high risk involved in oil and gas exploration, extraction, and refining? I have no problem with companies making profits, and it’s their business what salaries they pay to their coporate leaders. Those companies have boards that answer to us — shareholders. I’m not thrilled with the high gas prices either, but please think it through before you attack the very essence of what makes this country great — free enterprise.

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Ah, refreshing to see another capitalist on the board.

In the fairytale world where this was pulled off, here’s how the May 17 headline would read. Record Sales One Day After Record Losses. You really want to do something, buy a hybrid and stop consuming as much.

Gasoline is now a “legalized monopoly”…It doesn’t fit the normal supply/demand theory of capitalism.
Can anyone really survive w/o gasoline…every product is now shipped by truck…the surcharges from high gas prices affect every single other product/service we need.
When companies make trillions of dollars each quarter on a product that is now really a life neccessity we are in trouble. When this happened to electricity and natural gas they had to be regulated…before most the nations GNP goes to the OIL MOGULs that may have to happen again…

PS…the gas war day is silly and will not affect anything except a banner sales day on the 14th…

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everybody in the nation could boycott gas on the 15th, and its not going to hurt anyone but the gas station owners who operate on thin profits and have nothing to do with setting prices. You are still using the same amount of fuel, just shifting the day you buy it. IF you could get everyone to not use their vehicles for a week or even a day, that would be about the only way to allow the supply to build up and lower prices..Regardless, with these high gas prices, hopefully it will get people rethinking their fuel consumption and buying more fuel efficient vehicles, car pooling, biking or walking when possible. I’ve got a Silverado that I love to drive but opt to take the wife’s Civic when I can even though its THE most uncomfortable car ever made and I hate driving it. But its nice not having to visit the pump every 3 days to drop $75.00 on a tank of fuel

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we went to st martin for a week, and almost all there cars were 2 cylinders. why can’t we buy a 2 cylinder car in the USA? there cars were averaging 60 miles to the gallon.

The wife and I protest. We have a Prius and I put E-85 in the tahoe and we burn about 3 gallons of gas a week. That is until we fire up the boat and burn 30 gal on a weekend.

Gasoline is not a monopoly. At worst, you could say it is an oligopoly. I can think of at least four oil companies competing for our business in the US. I’m just always suprised at the amount of anger directed at companies that are profitable. Profits drive investment and innovation. Case in point are the oil sands in Canada. Without a profit motive, the oil companies would not have an incentive to figure out a way to extract that oil and bring it to market. They are risking their capital in hopes of finding more cost effective ways of extracting the oil where it once was impossible. Their reward for their hard work, multiple costly failures, and innovation is PROFIT. Our reward is a cheaper supply of oil. Market forces are alive and well — even in the oil industry.

I have no problem with any corporation making a profit, but not by holding my feet to the fire. No CEO is worth millions per year. They’re not JC out there performing miracles or anything. I must be getting old and complacent, but bending over and taking it up the butt isn’t the way we voiced our opinions in the 70’s. I read this in the Outdoor Gear Forum.

http://www.billoreilly.com/newslettercolumn?pid=21222

Guys, the gas companies don’t even own the refineries anymore. They’re a seperate entity and struggling to profit at all. In 1984, there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 250+ refineries. There are 142 in 2007. Granted, higher output is credited for keeping the country moving but the fact is that no one wants to build more refineries because of the lack of profits. Also, whenever someone tries to get one built, all the locals vote against having a refinery in “their backyard” and get the proposal run out of town.

The truth is, “THEY” didn’t shut down any refineries. The refineries needed maintenence to try and stay alive. Unfortunately, it’s not like the cyber world where you can just reroute while you perform maintenence on the mainframe.

These “GAS OUT” emails have been going around since gas started to top $1.50/gal. and are a HOAX. There’s more interest in clogging the bandwidths from over-trafficing emails than protesting an oil company. The truth is this:

We’ve had it good for a long time. Things get tougher and we whine a lot. Bottomline? As stated before, we have to change our habits. Do you think even one week is going to cripple a company??? C’mon, they’ve got the supply and the money to hold out on us longer than we can hold out on them. If they could legally get away with it, that’s exactly how they’d treat our protest.

PS – E-85 is another problem. Do the research and it you’ll find that it resolves nothing.

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we went to st martin for a week, and almost all there cars were 2 cylinders. why can’t we buy a 2 cylinder car in the USA? there cars were averaging 60 miles to the gallon.

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Who made these cars? I’m curious if importing them is an issue…….. Emmissions, crash tests, etc.,……

2 cylinders are available…… scooters and motorcycles! Got 53mpg on my 805cc V-twin yesterday!

I saw “Smart Cars” all over the place in Europe. Very tiny (they could park perpendicular in parallel parking spaces). I think they have 2 cyl. engines with CVT transmission (think snowmobile on wheels). The streets were very very narrow and winding — nothing like the nice city streets and highways we have here. I don’t think it would even have been possible to travel over 30mph on them. My only thought about driving a car like that here in the states is, “you first”. I wouldn’t want to see what happens to one of those in a crash with a normal US compact car much less a truck or SUV or Semi. Ouch!