Gas Boycott.

[wetbandit2003]

Starting April 16 2004, There will be a boycott on certain petrol companies. We all heard in the news today that OPEC has decided to cut back production by another 4%. We all know that the Big oil companies will gouge prices on gasoline. We can prevent this from happening. Here is how it will work.

Starting April 16 2004 at 8:00am, Do not buy gasoline, food, or even a news paper from Shell or B.P. gas stations for 30 days. You must make sure that you do not buy ANYTHING from these gas stations. IT is important! You buy your gas, sodas, snackies and your morning paper from other gas stations instead of Shell and B.P. for the thirty days. This will force Shell and BP to lower the price on gasoline to regain their business, possibly by as much as a magnitude of 30 cents/gal. If the boycotted gas stations lower their prices by a few cents early in the boycott, DO NOT BUY ANYTHING UNTIL AFTER THE THIRTY DAYS! They might raise their prices again. When the thirty days are up, if Shell and BP lower their prices substantially, Reward them, Buy Gas and Goodies only from them for thirty days. The surrounding gas stations will be forced to lower their prices too in order to keep their business. If Gas companies raise their prices again, Repeat the process again, targeting another Gasoline companies' gas stations. The idea here is to allow the consumer to be in charge of the market, not the big oil companies.
Copy this Message and Send it to as many people as you can.

[lectrobyte]

1. it's all about supply and demand

doesn't matter if you boycott Shell or whoever, they can't sell it below what they are paying for it, not for very long, anyway. Now, if we as a country could boycott OPEC, then you might have something there.

[fromthegroundup]

2. Gas Prices

Or just always buy your gasoline from Citgo filling stations in order to support Venezuelan Democracy.

Both Shell and BP have not-so-good human rights/environmental records and shouldn't be supported anyway.

If the people really want to show who's got the power, let's plan a nationwide one or two week long vacation. Let's not tell our employers...just don't show up to work. They can't fire us all? And I sure could use a break....

[mark11727]

3. I buy almost exclusively at HESS.

I've been keeping track of my car expenses for the past several years, and HESS always seems to be behind the curve whenever gas prices spike. A few years ago, I'd asked one of the employees there why this was so, and he answered that it was that HESS used mostly domestic gas.

[Kenneth ken]

4. "The idea here is to allow the consumer to be in charge of the market,...

...not the big oil companies. "

If the consumer wants to be in charge, the consumer ought to find ways to reduce their individual use of gasoline.

Skip the pizza delivery, make your own pizza.
Stop at the grocery on the way home from work, rather than getting home and going out again.
Try to carpool.
Look at your life and driving habits; see where you can decrease the numer of miles you drive in a day, week, month.

Nothing in the original post advocates any steps to try to reduce demand, so it just seems silly to me.

[AmericanErrorist]

5. Check your Snopes, Sorry

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/gasout.htm

[rapier]

6. notes

This is a flawed idea. Only if total consumption declines can one expect there to be any downward price pressure. Shifting demand from one supplier to another doesnt do much of anything.

In addition this whole thing mixes up gasoline with oil. In fact the US gasoline refiners have been very very good boys during the Bush years. Periods of "gouging" at the gas pumps have been localized and brief. While prices continue the age old pattern of rising explosively and declining slowly the drops have been quicker the last three years than in any period post 73. My theory is that gasoline could easily have been quite a bit higher many times but the oil men have been willing to limit profit in order to help Bush.

Month after month the trend of gasoline, and oil, inventories drops. The situation is now precarious. Only the will of the companies to play nice
has kept prices in line at all. Mark my words. If by some bizzare circumstance the GOP loses the White House you can look for some really gigantic spot short term spikes in years to come. I admit this is a weak prediction because these spike may occur anyway.

Back to total demand. China's oil demand is exploding. They are the marginal buyer who is causing the trend to higher prices. Assuminmg their demand continues to rise any sudden decline in US demand will not solve the supply/demand equation, it might only mitigate it.