Don`t Pump Gas on May 15th !

[EvilDustBooger]

OK. In keeping with this years green theme, may I suggest we
as a group of concerned internet citizens; participate in a proposed "Gas-Out".

...in other words:

Don't pump gas on may 15th


...in April 1997, there was a "gas out" conducted nationwide in
protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon
overnight.

On May 15th 2007, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in
protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most
places.

There are 73,000,000+ American members currently on the internet
network, and the average car takes about 30 to 50 dollars to fill up.

If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take
$2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies
pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May
15th and lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for
at least one day.

If you agree (which I cant see why you wouldn't) tell your friends.

But please, if you use gasoline - don`t buy any on May 15th.
As a matter of fact I`m not going to gas up for an entire week...time to break out the bike and get a little excercize... If it kills me, the world will be a greener place with 1 less gasoline consumer.
Common people.
Let`s Rock the market.
It would be fabulous to see what a large nationwide boycot would do to gas prices....who knows, maybe it could even last until event time, and knock a few bucks off of our collective fuel expenses to BRC this summer.

What d`ya say ?

[pinemom]

I tell ya, I could do that...yesturday left me in a state of "no way"..
went to grab a couple gallons, the price was 3.27!!
In nevada the minimum wage is 6.15 the avergae drive to work 'round these parts is 10-15 miles. If you drive an old 4x4... (it does snow here)
So if your middle to lower income, and have a mininum wage job, even with tips(but then again who's going out to eat cause gas is so expensive),
your spending over half your hourly wage to get to work, that leaves less then half to pay your bills and feed you family with....not to mention Uncle sams cut of the pie...
Good gracious, whats happening in the oval office? cant he see what the hell is happening right here in OUR OWN BACKYARD...or does he have his head in the sands of foreign soil!?!?!

[CapSmashy]

Actually, they wouldn't loose any money. If you could actually get people on board for a project like this, they would either gas up on the 14th or the 16th.

If you really want to make a dent in someone's pocketbooks and lower the price of gasoline, switch to mass transit, bicycling and a very efficient automobile. One of the 35 to 40mpg smaller cars. 30 million commuters switching from a 15 mpg SUV or 20mpg older non-LEV vehicle to a 30 to 40mpg, LEV sedan or coupe for a daily driver would have a much greater and much longer lasting impact on oil demands and the air quality than not buying gas on a particular day.

Sure, trying to get people to not buy gas on a certain day sounds fun and it is definitely an easy way to try and make yourself feel empowered and involved about "sticking it to the man", but ultimately, even if it were successful, it would not have a lasting impact. Doing the hardwork of a grass roots campaign to get people to give up their older, polluting vehicles and low mpg SUV's in exchange for new, efficient low emission vehicles is what will help start to bring about the results you desire.


And, its very nice you live in an area that will allow you to ride a bike all week for your day to day needs. Unfortunately, many Americans live in areas that are not bicycle friendly and trying to utilize one is akin to playing Russian Roulette on a good traffic day. I personally would love to be able to bike around or utilize mass transit for my day to day to needs, but neither are a realistic option for me where I live.

[EvilDustBooger]

....yeah, just changing the day when you buy the gas won`t make much of a difference. But it would make a statement...and could be part of starting our own personal "grass roots" campaign. Who knows, it could be the beginning of a new awareness about our nations prolific fuel consumption. I would like to try a "don`t drive the week of May 14th" campaign, but I know that would be asking spoiled Americans for too much sacrifice of their luxuries...I`m just as spoiled as the next guy, but try to imagine the effect of millions of people not buying gas on a particular day. It would be noticed.
Remember the eerie quiet of airplane-less skies on the days following 9/11 ? Creepy, because everyone was so fearful, but it was very noticably peaceful and sublime for a few days to not have jets roaring overhead.
Just imagine if there were no cars on the streets for a week !

I know it`s not likely to happen without a crisis of some sort.

But , like John Lennon, I`m imagining.

[unjonharley]

Just pick one oil co and not buy until the price come down.. Them pick another..

I'm running 60% electric now.. Planing to add to that % and go year around..

[MoisturePup]

OK. In keeping with this years green theme, blah blah blah..

What d`ya say ? :idea:

I have a better idea.

How about "Work from home week." Where everybody who can works from home for the week. The oil companies don't lose a single cent when people don't fill up one day but use gas on that day. So instead, let's not use gas. That way you don't have to fill your tank up on the 14th or 16th to make up for not filling it up on the 15th. Why a week? Because not everybody has a job that makes it possible to work from home. If 20% of the working public does have that sort of job, and they work from home 5 days then it's the equivalent of the entire working population going without gas for one day. THAT would actually take money out of oil industries bottom line. (but only 1/365th of their bottom line unfortunately.)

[EvilDustBooger]

...now we`re talking.

Nice point MoisturePup.

I`m 1 of the lucky few I guess.
I am walking distance from my office.
...but I`m still driving most days because I like to haul alot of crap around with me,
and I like to be able to "bug out" in a hurry if I need to go somewhere.

I`m starting to rethink my strategy .
Maybe I`ll put a big basket on my bike.
Hell, if I do need to use my vehicle, it`s within walking distance...


...unless of course some bastard steals it !

[diane o'thirst]

I won't be gassing up, but that's because I will be in Washington DC for LiveSTRONG Day.

I only gas up once a week anyway, and it wouldn't fall on the 15th.

Speaking of gas economy...my Navajo's mileage is slipping badly. I'm only getting 15 mpg, which is awful, so I started shopping around for a replacement. I thought about getting a RoadTrek but they cost as much as a bloody Range Rover. True, diesels last a long time and I'd get more bang for my buck, but I'm not anxious to spring $400 a month for the next twenty years.

So the plan is...get a pre-owned diesel truck, build Tumbleweed Tiny Homes' Vardo camper in the bed, and come out ahead by a factor of four and a half.

[Archantael]

In the overall scheme of things Big Oil is not going to notice that much of a dent in their profits over this. Most of the people that do this will turn right around and buy fuel the very next day...so when you think about it this effort accomplishes nothing.

Now if you really wanted to stick it to big oil, there is something you can do. It's called making sure you get what yu pay for at the pump. Instead of me explaining it I'll point everyone to a KC Star newspaper series on the problem, and you can see from the related links that it's getting the attention of Congress. With a few more cries for change, Congress will be more inclined to act.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/hot_fuel/

[dragonfly Jafe]

...so what if everyone switched to buying their gas at midnight? or before it heated up the next day? Would that result in a 2.3 billion dollar hit to the fuel companies?

[diane o'thirst]

Hey, if it saves money, I'm all for it.

Course, the fuel companies will probably squeal like toddlers that it'll cut into their profit margin. Then they'll go ahead and retrofit their tanker fleets and storage tanks with insulation and fridge units to keep the juice below room temp.

[Karma]

You KNOW what the gas companys will do, just to really burn the participants, they"ll lower the price of gas by 50 cents on the 15th, then back to normal on the 16th.

If I owned an oil company, that's what I would do.

[Thecatman]

Good idea but I fill up on Fridays after work so I'll be between fillups.

[Thecatman]

[quote="pinemom"]I tell ya, I could do that...yesturday left me in a state of "no way"..
went to grab a couple gallons, the price was 3.27!!
In nevada the minimum wage is 6.15 the avergae drive to work 'round these parts is 10-15 miles. If you drive an old 4x4... (it does snow here)
So if your middle to lower income, and have a mininum wage job, even with tips(but then again who's going out to eat cause gas is so expensive),
your spending over half your hourly wage to get to work, that leaves less then half to pay your bills and feed you family with....not to mention Uncle sams cut of the pie...
Good gracious, whats happening in the oval office? cant he see what the hell is happening right here in OUR OWN BACKYARD...or does he have his head in the sands of foreign soil!?!?! To Pinemom: Sounds like you live in the Reno/Sparks area. I pay $2.86 for diesel at the Day N Night on 4th street

[diane o'thirst]

Good gracious, whats happening in the oval office? cant he see what the hell is happening right here in OUR OWN BACKYARD...or does he have his head in the sands of foreign soil!?!?!

Bingo.

That or he knows his party's going down come Nov 2008, so he wants to use Iraq as a beachhead to get into Iran and stick the Dems with an all-out war with them as a fond parting "Sorry, good luck."

[Nick Collide]

If you really want to hit the oil companies in the pocketbook, everyone should gas up on the 15th...and then drive away without paying for it. Yeah, steal the shit! Sure, you would be reported by the gas station, but if 20-30 million people did it, what could the cops do...?

Just kidding, of course.

What really burns me up about the whole thing is hearing how the oil companies jack up the price of gas in an effort to get the American public's appetite for gasoline under control. That's bullshit. Every summer, when the demand for gas goes up - people wanting to get out - the price goes through the roof, and it has nothing to do with the price per barrel of oil (I think the only reason OPEC jacks up the price of oil is to get their share of the gouge).

[Box Burner]

Not gonna work. Not everyone csan afford to but a more fuel efficient car and boycotting for just one day as has been already pointed out just means you are going to purchase on a different day. But this is what will work:

Without naming names we will, just for arguments sake say that there are 5 big oil companies. We as consumers pick one, say oil company number 3. Then we announce that we will not buy gas from oil company 3 untill they lower their gas prices to a reasonable level. then you boycott that company until they lower their prices or go out of bussiness. If oil company 3 does not lower their prices you just continue the boycott untill they go out of bussiness. Then you say to oil company number 2, "see what happened to oil company number 3? You are next. And you boycott oil company number 2. As soon as one of the oil companies lowers their price to a reasonable level you start buying gan exclusively from that company and switch the boycott to a different one.

[CapSmashy]

Not gonna work. Not everyone csan afford to but a more fuel efficient car

But there are a very significant number of people that can afford to make that switch. Enough that there would be a very impact on oil consumption. I'd have to really dig to find the article again, but one estimate I read a few years back was saying that if every private vehicle on the road averaged 30 mpg, we would potentially 100% eliminate the need for the oil we get from the Middle East.

Without naming names we will, just for arguments sake say that there are 5 big oil companies. We as consumers pick one, say oil company number 3. Then we announce that we will not buy gas from oil company 3 untill they lower their gas prices to a reasonable level. then you boycott that company until they lower their prices or go out of bussiness. If oil company 3 does not lower their prices you just continue the boycott untill they go out of bussiness. Then you say to oil company number 2, "see what happened to oil company number 3? You are next. And you boycott oil company number 2. As soon as one of the oil companies lowers their price to a reasonable level you start buying gan exclusively from that company and switch the boycott to a different one.

Okay, you drive companies 1 thru 4 out of business leaving an oil monopoly in the hands of one corporation. This one corporation has been nuking its profit margins by laying off thousands of people, abandoning R&D projects, reducing infrastructure upgrades, minimal maintenance to facilitates etc. all in the effort to be able to acquiesce to the demands of the consumer and more importantly, be the last man standing. And guess what a monopoly gets to do. They have no more competition, they have hemorrhaged red ink for years to get here, guess who is going to refill their coffers and not have any alternative when the price triples from what it was before a boycott.

What a boycott fails to take into consideration is the very real fact that our society can not function without oil. Period. Sure, if trillions of dollars were invested and decades spent rebuilding the national processing, production and distribution infrastructure, we could gradually begin to ween ourselves off of oil as a primary source of energy for our vehicles but what about the thousands of other products we currently need oil for?

[unjonharley]

I read some where that 1 out 5 peoples living is conected to oil in some way

[Box Burner]

Okay, you drive companies 1 thru 4 out of business leaving an oil monopoly in the hands of one corporation. This one corporation has been nuking its profit margins by laying off thousands of people, abandoning R&D projects, reducing infrastructure upgrades, minimal maintenance to facilitates etc. all in the effort to be able to acquiesce to the demands of the consumer and more importantly, be the last man standing. And guess what a monopoly gets to do. They have no more competition, they have hemorrhaged red ink for years to get here, guess who is going to refill their coffers and not have any alternative when the price triples from what it was before a boycott.

What a boycott fails to take into consideration is the very real fact that our society can not function without oil. Period. Sure, if trillions of dollars were invested and decades spent rebuilding the national processing, production and distribution infrastructure, we could gradually begin to ween ourselves off of oil as a primary source of energy for our vehicles but what about the thousands of other products we currently need oil for?

I do not think that will happen. If company 1 and 2 fold each one of companies 3,4 and 5 are going to be sure that they are next. But even so that is not the real answer.

The answer is right here. Burning Man. Radical self reliance. Every home in this country should have a windmill and make the most of solar power in its various forms. Most of the elecrical power plants in this country, in the world for that matter run on fossil fuels. Coal and oil. Self reliance, that is the direction we should have taken in this country instead of Centralized power. It is the same as government. If you give, or let a few people take power you are going to get screwed.

As a side note: Did you know that burning coal releases radiactive contamination into the atmosphere, which then falls to the ground? I was a Radiation Health Physics Tech for a number of years. when ever we did a refuel at a nuclear power plant we told the boilermakers that they could not use the same clothes that they were using in the coal plants. naturally some of them always did and it would set off the contamination alarms when they were leaving. We would then take away their clothes and send them home in a paper suit.

[Lukky]

This will never work.

The numbers are eff'd. IF everyone one the internet in the US had a car, and all had empty tanks, then it would temperately withhold almost 3 billion dollars out of the gas tycoons pockets.

I just dont see this working, but I've been wrong before.

[Melissasheart]

its a nice thought though.
ID like to see everyone commute to the max with 4-5 people in a car for the entire week, or dont buy gas for a week and then see what happens. That would definately get OPECs attention.

[motskyroonmatick]

I'm in on no gas on the 15th just to show my support. I like the number of "hybrids" I see on the road in Oregon. I would like to have one for the 80+% of the time when I don't need the transportation capability of a pickup. I think that fuel prices will rise with the future increase of average miles per gallon because the prices are based on what the petrolium companies can get out of us and not cost of production.

[diane o'thirst]

Ford is introducing a hybrid Explorer next year. I'm thinking of trading in Nephthys Navajo for one...she's almost 18 years old and the whole drivetrain is Ford anyway.

[Zulegoona]

Ok so I don’t quite get it , the desire or “ need “ for cheep gas is what fuels the United States to attempt to secure a stable reliable supplier in the middle east by deposing a nations former leader and promoting the American way Capitalism and democracy,... that isn’t working so good and prices begin to rise to the point alternative fuels become more competitive and attractive, and vehicles that consume a lot of gas become less desirable. High prices would seem to be a lot more green than cheep abundant gas. If Americans register their vote for cheep gas doesn’t that send the message that politicians will pick up on and respond by doing something like invading Venezuela or something stupid to make sure we all get our cheep gas?

[BoxaRox]

Blaming oil companies for fuel prices is SO ignorant. If the oil companies were as greedy as you suggest, they would be charging $10 or even $20 per gallon. And we would pay it.

It's really quite simple. If you think gas costs too much, then don't use so much.

If you are unable or unwilling to reduce your consumption, then you are part of the reason prices are high.

Deal with it.

[Box Burner]

Blaming oil companies for fuel prices is SO ignorant. If the oil companies were as greedy as you suggest, they would be charging $10 or even $20 per gallon. And we would pay it.

It's really quite simple. If you think gas costs too much, then don't use so much.

If you are unable or unwilling to reduce your consumption, then you are part of the reason prices are high.

Deal with it.

Although I posted about what type of boycott might work, I stand by what I said in a followup post. Radical Self Reliance. That is the real solution to the problem. It is not just about price. It is more of being responsible for ones self and also using the planets resources in a responsible and efficient manner. So we call it Radical Self Reliance. But really... it should be just plain old everyday self reliance.

[Wind_Borne]

I've have to agree with BoxaRox on this. Everyone who buys gas makes a concious decision each time they fill up that the price of fuel is a better deal than any other alternative. Otherwise, they would opt for the alternative.

And if high fuel prices cause people to abandon their SUVs for more sensible transportation (whether that is a more fuel efficient car, a bike or mass transit), that's a win for the planet.

[MikeVDS]

I agree. Every time I see prices rise I just think about how we're that much closer to cost effective alternative energy sources. The higher those prices rise the more nails big oils puts in it's coffin. The bad part is that there is so much mark-up on oil that when another technology steps in, oils price will drop somewhere below the alternate source. We will be stuck with oil for a while as a society, but the higher prices go, the more we'll invest in other technologies.

[EvilDustBooger]

One thing that I`ve gathered from a lot of posts here is that irony is not dead.
It is alive and well and being very effectively employed by the oil traders and gasoline producers.
I believe that reality dictates in our capitalist society, where oil is the only game in town(available to the majority of citizens), that the higher the price of fuel, the fewer funds will be available (for the majority of drivers) for affording new alternatives to gasoline.
Who`s got the cash? Oil companies do. And, until manufacturing capabilities catch up with technological advances in the transportation sector (i.e. affordable hydrogen reactor technology, solar batteries etc...) we will continue to be played by the oil & gas producers. There have been some amazing breakthroughs in technology in my lifetime, and I`m hopeful that we see an inexpensive, planet friendly answer to this huge problem soon; but for now...it just isn`t happening. And national politics seem to be supporting the status quo directives of large corporate constituents.
The thought that large oil corporations(with the government in their back pocket) will kill themselves with massive profits is a little far fetched I think. And the amazing additions to oil producers and distributor`s bottom line over this last year is testament that they are thriving in these days of perceived shortages and stepped up attacks and abductions in oil fields.
I`m as spoiled as the next guy I guess, and I would really miss my vehicle if I were to have to go without it. And I know that this little demonstration will probably not solve any ecological or economic problems in the long run.
But,
For this one week, I am going to change roles from being played to being
player....no matter how insignificant my little stand against the big oil-game is. I will not purchase gasoline for the entire week, and I will cut way down on my consumption of gas...who knows, maybe I`ll be motivated to keep it going for longer...or Not keep it going as it were.
At the least, I can say I saw clearly the writing on the wall, and tried to do something. Just like I did in `04 with my "Lick Bush" campaign. No matter how pathetic or disappointing the results might be....

EDB