ironrod

As you know there have been several (rather unsuccessful) attempts over the
years to 'send a message to the oil companies' by boycotting every gas
station one day of the year. This year it could finally be different, Bill
O'Reilly and Fox News are promoting gas-less Sundays, every Sunday from now
until the end of the year, just fill up the day before or the day after.
Believe it or not this is not as foolish a gesture as you might think, the
fuel has to flow through the pipe lines at a constant rate, a sudden drop in
demand sends aftershocks all through the distribution system. With the big
media coordination it might finally be possible to get the attention of the
Big Oil companies and perhaps get some relief from the incessant price
gouging we've been enduring for all these years. It's worth a try at least.

Ritz

ironrod wrote:
> As you know there have been several (rather unsuccessful) attempts over the
> years to 'send a message to the oil companies' by boycotting every gas
> station one day of the year. This year it could finally be different, Bill
> O'Reilly and Fox News are promoting gas-less Sundays, every Sunday from now
> until the end of the year, just fill up the day before or the day after.
> Believe it or not this is not as foolish a gesture as you might think, the
> fuel has to flow through the pipe lines at a constant rate, a sudden drop in
> demand sends aftershocks all through the distribution system. With the big
> media coordination it might finally be possible to get the attention of the
> Big Oil companies and perhaps get some relief from the incessant price
> gouging we've been enduring for all these years. It's worth a try at least.
>
>


When you've "gotten their attention" what do you intend to do then?

This is pretty ridiculous.

a> It won't work.
b> It won't be even a minor shock to the system, even if you could get
people to go along with it (and history has shown that they won't).

Every station has in-ground tanks with several thousand to several tens
of thousand gallons of gas to carry them for several days or weeks.
Even if they didn't sell a drop of gas on any particular day, it's not
going to be a big deal, especially since all those "helpers" would be
filling up either the day before or the day after anyway. So the end
result (averaged over the course of a couple of days) is ZERO change in
the system.

The only effective way to carry this out is to close the actual stations
for a couple of days. And that's not happening since the major oil
companies have been buying up the vast majority of the stations they
didn't already own over the last 20-30 years. Checkmate.

But hey, if you want to be Don Quixote and take your bicycle to work on
that day, my hat's off to ya. The exercise is good for you.

Cheers,

Dan

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/nogas.asp

Dan
2003 Cobra convertible
With some stuff and things

Backyard Mechanic

"Dan" <dwtalso@nuail.com> wrote in news:1126535725.005796.110570
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

> http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/nogas.asp

A bit of common-sense from that article:
- - - - - - -
Moreover, the primary potential effect of the type of boycott proposed in
the "gas out" messages is to hurt those at the very end of the oil-to-
gasoline chain, service station operators — the people who have the least
say in setting gasoline prices. As such, the "gas out" is a punch on the
nose delivered to the wrong person.

Either apathy or an outbreak of common sense has made previous "gas outs"
non-events with very low levels of participation,
- - - - - - - - - - -
Most LIKELY common sense.... I have a deep suspicion of the political
leanings of those who think this would work.

Let's just say the White Rabbit has very long ears..

Spike

On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 20:24:21 GMT, Backyard Mechanic
<pettyfog@yaywho.com> wrote:

>"Dan" <dwtalso@nuail.com> wrote in news:1126535725.005796.110570
>@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
>
>> http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/nogas.asp
>
>A bit of common-sense from that article:
> - - - - - - -
>Moreover, the primary potential effect of the type of boycott proposed in
>the "gas out" messages is to hurt those at the very end of the oil-to-
>gasoline chain, service station operators — the people who have the least
>say in setting gasoline prices. As such, the "gas out" is a punch on the
>nose delivered to the wrong person.
>
>Either apathy or an outbreak of common sense has made previous "gas outs"
>non-events with very low levels of participation,
>- - - - - - - - - - -
>Most LIKELY common sense.... I have a deep suspicion of the political
>leanings of those who think this would work.
>
>Let's just say the White Rabbit has very long ears..

A little play on "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane...

one pill makes you larger
and one pill makes you small
and the ones the pundits give you
don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice...
when her gas tank's empty
her car stalls...
: 0 )
when logic and good fortune
have fallen
don't you know
that the White Knight is traveling backward...
missing windmills
one and all...
: 0 )
when men on the exec board
get up and tell you where to go
and you've just seen another price rise
and you mind is movin' on
Go ask Alice...
I think she'll know
when she became so small...
: 0 )
So if you go chasing rabbits
and you stumble
don't you fall
for logic of cigar smokin' catepillars
who've given you the call...
Call Alice
when she's thinks
she's 10 feet tall...
: 0 )
Spike
1965 Ford Mustang fastback 2+2 A Code 289 C4 Trac-Lok
Vintage Burgundy w/Black Standard Interior; Vintage 40
16" rims w/BF Goodrich Comp T/A gForce Radial
225/50ZR16 KDWS skins; surround sound audio-video.

Gad what fools these morons be....
Children are obscene but should not be heard
Give me a peperoni pizza... or give me a calzone!

ironrod

I can't argue with the article, a point to remember is that the gas
companies can only keep the prices artificially high by working like a
cartel. Some people might remember the Exxon Valdez fiasco, ordinary people
were so disgusted with the handling of the disaster that they all
spontaneously just stopped buying gas from Exxon stations. This hurt Exxon
so bad that they eventually took out FULL PAGE adds in all the major news
papers around the country stating much the same information. (of course they
left out the part about their losing money when everybody else was raking it
in). Point being if you can cost one of the major suppliers market share
then they have to drop their profit margin to get it back. If that happens
then the cartel is broken and you once again have free market influences
setting the price. It will never be possible to buy a product for less than
it cost but you can keep the profit margins reasonable.


"Dan" <dwtalso@nuail.com> wrote in message
news:1126535725.005796.110570@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/nogas.asp
>
> Dan
> 2003 Cobra convertible
> With some stuff and things
>