SOT: GAS WAR!!!, How we can drive down the price Options

[Brando]

GAS WAR!!!


PLEASE HELP BY RE-POSTING IN OTHER locations
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola
executive It came from one of his engineer buddies
who retired from Halliburton. It's worth your
consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit
close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might
go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We
need to take some intelligent, united action.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes
MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain
day" campaign that was going around last April or May!
The oil companies just laughed at that because they
knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by
refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience
to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever
thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at
about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently
$2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the
oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us
to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at
$1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to
teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace. not
sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each
day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we
are going to see the price of gas come down is if we
hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their
gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How?

Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop
buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if
we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T
purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies
(which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not
selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their
prices. If they reduce their prices, the other
companies will have to follow suit. But to have an
impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon
and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now,
don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and
I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of
people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us
send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and
those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =
3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches
the sixth group of people, we will have reached over
THREE MILLION consumers.

If those three million get excited and pass this on to
ten friends each, then 30 million people will have
been contacted! If it goes one level further, you
guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people.
That's all!
(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million
and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....
Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician.
But I am . so trust me on this one.) :-)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends

this
e-mail out to ten more people within one day of
receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be
contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you
didn't think you and I had that much potential, did
you! Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message
on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL
THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP
THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Other subsidies of British Petrolium Co.:
ExxonMobil (Mobil), Royal Dutch Shell (Shell), Castrol Oil, Arco, AmPm, Aral, Amoco and finally Standard Oil of Ohio.

Get this, SOHIO is also the owner of these companies:

Standard Oil, Chevron, Texaco, ConocoPhillips, Gulf Oil, Caltex, Havoline, Revtex, Ursa, Sunoco.

Interesting who owns what companies, yes?

[JB 914]

So, when Exxon/Mobil's got supply they just sell it to everybody else.

Dude, you got MattR'd

[Brando]

So, when Exxon/Mobil's got supply they just sell it to everybody else.

Dude, you got MattR'd

I think you need a new first mate.

Oooooh totally MattR'd you... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol2.gif)

[Dr Evil]

Look into OPEC.

Don't buy into the spam at face value (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Its a bigger conspiracy than you think (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

[G e o r g e]

shell bought texaco......


so who owns who?

if you want to get even get smart and buy thier stock


George

[TonyAKAVW]

Gas isn't painfully expensive enough yet. Until it gets to twice what it costs now, people won't care a whole lot. To really get people to get behind something like this would require pain. We are a pretty lethargic and disinterested populous these days so it will take reall financial pain to make people take any action. The threshold of this pain is something that the oil companies must be putting massive resources into studying. How high can they sell gas before people start caring enough to do something. Apparently its going to be pretty high.

When gas finally does get to $5.00 a gallon, SUVs will suddenly become less popular and they will be replaced by hybrids, or other high mileage cars.

I suppose the US doesn't have the abundant natural gas that South America does, but since the economic collapse in Argentina at the end of 2001, there has been a HUGE trend to convert cars to run on CNG. Suddenly somehow the infrastructure got into place pretty quickly and there is a huge percentage of the population driving CNG vehicles.

In any case, I don't see these boycotting schemes ever making much of a difference. Once people see cheaper gas at the Exxon or Mobile stations, it will be tough to keep people from buying the gas. Even if ExxonMobile DIDN'T resell their gas to the competition, and if no one bought it, then the gas from the other companies would get expensive and Exxon's would get cheaper. So the end of the year comes around and people have suffered with even more expensive gas, and then peopel go back to buying from ExxonMobile. Prices would quickly equalize, but higher than before of course. Unless you can put ExxonMobile out of business all together, and somehow get less profit-hungry copmanies supplying the oil, nothing is going to change. Prices will continue to rise in a way that doesn't tip the balance of the threshhold of pain.

-Tony

[turboman808]

I want fuel to be $5 or more. I got to admit anarchy kinda excites me. I would love to be around when we finaly do resort to bloodshed in the streets for gas.

Of course the price of plastic really does effect my pocket like you wouldn't beleive. And it's directly related to fuel prices. Plastic prices kinda deciede wether I get a ferrari or a kia next year. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[newto914s]

I want fuel to be $5 or more. I got to admit anarchy kinda excites me. I would love to be around when we finaly do resort to bloodshed in the streets for gas.

Dude, becareful what you wish for. This site make a pretty good argument for "up shit creek without a paddel".
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

[Pugbug]

Oh god....I just can't wait till the prices go higher! I'll have to go electric.

I filled my two gallon gas can for my lawnmower the other day. Would you believe.....$13.11?

Want higher gas prices? Come to Canada!

[BMartin914]

The fact of the matter is that *at this point* people still don't really care.

They will bitch about how expensive fuel is on Monday and on Tuesday they are driving a new H2, LR3, Yukon XL, (insert big, unnecessary, wasteful vehicle name here).

Until these people that are OK with 14 MPG are paying hundreds of dollars to fill up their gas guzzlers change their tune, nothing will change.

People don't realize that they are fueling our dependence on foreign oil by driving these things and forcing the demand for oil up, up, up.

Unfortunately, some people are just too stupid to realize.

I guess they are just preparing for the day when I-5 is buried under 3 feet of snow...

[Dr Evil]

I am hoping to have space for a bio diesel reactor in the future. Can you say $.50/gal using waste veg oil? That was part of why I keep the Benz. Whant to get pissed. Buy a diesel. Diesel is always highr than premium, but diesel is less refined. Where is the extra cost? Taxes. Why? I don't know but the truckers a getting screwed and the cost of goods will go up resulting in....more taxes. Brilliant! My new dream car is a TDI. 45mpg for $.50 a mile and OPEC can eat my shorts.

[JB 914]

So, when Exxon/Mobil's got supply they just sell it to everybody else.

Dude, you got MattR'd

I think you need a new first mate.

Oooooh totally MattR'd you... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol2.gif)

Dude, since gas is so high.....are you drinking Bud yet? I've saved you a few at the boat!
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol2.gif)

[effutuo101]

It might be urban myth, but I heard that Elf oil owns Fiat, which owns Ferrari, Ducatti, Gilerra, and a bunch of other marques. If that is true, then the oil companies own the car companies. Which in turn only fulfill Federally mandated requirements for the least cost. The only thing that will get us uber economy vehicles is our vote. The $ vote won't work as a company that makes 25 Billion in profit can afford to stay afloat for years with out making a profit. There is a large percentage of our populace that live paycheck to paycheck. We have to mandate that a percentage of the vehicles must get 100+ mpg (and the target buyer makes under 30k a year for the family), a smaller percentage get 60mpg and so on. I don't mind paying a luxury tax on my vintage car to the govt to help off set the cost. Maybe it is just me, but the people most hurt by the gas prices are driving POS cars. I spent about 13 years working for the DOD. The best mony I made at that job was 23K a year. To counter point that, 80k in the bay area is poverty level. To iterate, the only thing we can do is pass legislation to change it.

[bondo]

The only thing consumers can do to lower gas prices is use less gas, (I know I travel less than I used to, and I quit the job I had with a 40 mile commute), and always buy gas at the absolute cheapest places.

Places like arco and costco keep their prices cheaper than the others, that's their thing. If people quit going to the more expensive ones (chevron, mobil, shell, texaco, 76, etc.) then they would have to lower their price to stay open. Then arco, costco, and other discount places would have to lower theirs to stay cheaper than the rest. Of course this won't work until people quit buying all the marketing that techron, etc. will make your engine last forever. As prices rise, more and more people will start hunting down cheap gas, and stop listening to commercials. That happened to me when they hit around $2. At what price will it happen to joe consumer?

Sites like this are definitely a step in the right direction.

Of course this will only get prices down to where the oil companies are hurting, instead of making record profits. OPEC would be much harder to influence. Last year we had record high gas prices, and exxon made redord profits.. Has anyone calculated how much cheaper the gas would have been if they had made the same profit as the year before? It really frosts me that the unusually high gas prices, that they supposedly have little control over, makes them windfall profits and pushes them to the top of the Fortune 500. And don't even get me started on how gas prices go up quickly in anticipation of things, but don't go down, or go down slowly.

[effutuo101]

I also love how gas prices go up in summer because of "more demand" and then go up again in winter becuase of "higher costs" to add the "additives" for winter driving. even though the "additives" are required year round in most states. Gas companies get gas prices for future buys months in advance. They then hike prices today to offset a higher gas prices in the future. This is not supply and demand. But, It does motivate my conversion to a more recent technology that I can flip a software switch and get good gas milage when I want and flip another software switch and get tire smoking performance when I want. Bring on the conversions!

[GeorgeRud]

There's a nice article on alternative fuels in the new Popular Mechanics magazine (May, 2006). It looks like gas is the cheapest alternative for quite a while.

We're pretty well screwed as far as gas prices go, it's all up to OPEC and the oil companies. I did my part by getting rid of my old 12 mpg Dodge Durango, and now use a Scion xB for my around town car. Plenty of interior space, gets around OK for the city, and 25 - 32 mpg. Till gas gets to $5/gallon (and it probably will), I don't think most people will change and will only continue to bitch about the price.

I would rather spend my money playing with my Porsche toys than feeding those hungry oil sheiks. The less I spend on gas for puttering around town, the more for other uses. My old hippie ways are re-emerging!

[JB 914]

Gas prices are high because we cannot produce enough gasoline. we have not built a new refinery in 25+ years. In fact, we have closed refineries. Everytime a refinery goes down for repair it causes a fluctuation in supply causing prices to increase.

Also, we have not been doing as much oil exploration as we have production in the last 10-15 years. Alot of the middle east oil and Alaskan oil was discovered in the 60's and 70's. those wells are not producing as much as they were in the 80's.

[Spoke]

Crude oil prices are at an all time high. World wide demand is up. We're all screwed until the price gets so high that the general public starts buying high efficiency vehicles like hybrids and stop buying all of our gas guzzlers and we all cut down on our energy use.

The only solution is to use less energy and use non-petroleum based fuels. By the late 70s, cars were getting 20+ mpg but sucked in HP. Cheap oil in the 80s and 90s brought back the HP and cars are still getting 20+ mpg. Maybe the high fuel prices will finally get cars into the 30+, 40+ mpg. For now, it may be best to invest in oil company stocks...

Spoke

[Brando]

One word:

ETHANOL.

Look at Brazil... They will be 100% Ethanol by the end of this decade. Their ethanol-based cars are made by... Chevy and GM. Nice, huh? Car manufacturers do have the technology to efficiently produce non-petrol reliant vehicles.

Where does the Ethanol come from? Sugar cane. Sweeeeet.

There was an article run in Today's Weekend Edition paper on Corn-based ethanol fuels, how they are cheap and efficient to produce, with almost none environmental damage. A few weeks ago there was a run on CNN about the demand for alternate fuel sources. The best and most efficient was: Ethanol.

Bio-diesel is another great option. Go to the Borland center at UCR and ask about Bio-Diesel production. You pretty much pressure cook and chemically treat waste (plastics, biologicals, almost anything but metals) down to long carbon-chained molecules. So, garbage then gets turned into fuel. Nice way to recycle and control pollutants. All we need is Burrtec or Waste Management to open a few Bio-Diesel plants, cities and companies pay them to take the trash... Voila... Renewable energy.

If we just got our automobiles to no-longer be reliant on gasoline, that would cut our consumption greatly. Then we could use our supplies on plastics and other carbon-based polymers that refined oil is used for.

[Aaron Cox]

will my weber carbs run on ethanol?

i think not. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)