Gas War

[angelak]

This seems feasible, worthwhile and in most cases, easy. This is basically a forward from email, so excuse that, but here it is anyhow.
-Angela

GAS WAR!
Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $3.00 a gallon by the 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 it and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.09 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.

Second party insert: http://www.answers.com/topic/exxon-mobil-corporation

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 whimp 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 about thirty people. If each of you 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 generation 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.


-Angela

Comments

Problems

[centeruniverse.livejournal.com]

It'll never work, and there are two reasons:

1) It's not going to reach 300 Million people, because that assumes that no one has the same people in their address books. It's more likely that one person will get 30 emails.

2) The second Exxon-Mobil responds to this "pressure" and drops their prices $.10, everyone will flock to them, and thus remove the pressure.

A better idea would be to cut down on gas use in general...less demand = lower price if the supply stays the same.

Re: Problems

[ithisia.livejournal.com]

True that.

-A

[khaya.livejournal.com]

Certainly, Exxon and Mobil deserve a hard kick in the butt. However, I think this is a bandaid solution for a hemorhaging aorta. The reason gas prices are increasing is that petroleum and other fossil fuels are nonrenewable energy resources that are increasingly diminishing and are also in high demand. As China and other developing nations increase fuel use and the European and North American countries continue consumption, we are increasingly getting into a bind. The petro-corporations are also perpetuating the illusion that more exploration and opening up of wilderness areas to extraction will yield more fuel and decrease cost. In addtion to diminishing supply they also suppress the environmental and social costs for more extraction. Investors, including our current US government, are also willing to subsidize exploration and adventurism (as in Iraq and Afganistan) and perpedtuate the illusion for the possibility of a high return in profit. Military intervention is a form of subsidy/investment.

We are likely to reach our peak in terms of fuel extraction and production in another five to ten years. Exxon, Mobil and the other petro-corporations are taking advantage of the ecological and economic reality that much of the world is in denial over. As the peak is passed and production significantly decreases there will likely be severe impacts since much of the global economy, including food production and distribution, is fossil fuel dependent. We will need to rethink a lot of how we live and do things. So, going after Exxon, Mobil and others just to lower gas prices is as short sighted as the petro-corporations themselves.

End of rant.

Hm.

[ithisia.livejournal.com]

I feel like I just read some article out of a paper.

...

Yeah. I'll stick the retard posts to myspace.
lol.

I don't think it's a question of whether we'll run out or not.
It is a matter of when.
Though I have no doubt that we'll find some other way; though only when forced. [Until then, denial is easier and also, I really don't think that the petro corps are really all that short sighted. Perhaps there's more they've got their fingers into they aren't telling us? They really aren't TAHT stupid, is what I tell myself. There's no real way to know.]

*shrugs* Regardless. Posted as food for thought.

We're screwed one way or the other, there's no doubt of that.
Good to hear from you today, none the less...

-Angela

Food for thought.

[khaya.livejournal.com]

So, you're hungry for some provocative thinking, eh?

Yes, I agree that we'll find other ways when forced once we get beyond the panic and fear. Denial is a manifestation of fear. There will be hoarding and fighting for what's left. The petro-corporations, as is there modus operandi, will attempt to monopolize or suppress, with government assistance, the backyard and basement technologies currently emerging, such as hydrogen, solar, wind, etc. There is hope, however, in local efforts to change but we need to get beyond the politicization, i.e. compromise, that too often hampers paradigm shifts. Decentralization, localization and changing the assumptions that underlie our economy are big steps that many fear.

In some we respects we may be screwed but there are endless possibilities if we go looking for them and hook up with others outside of the mainstream. The tools for the future are our creativity, systems thinking and willingness to reinvent. It will just take the mainstream a long while to catch up with the dreamers, innovators, tinkerers and other change agents.