IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.
AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES THEREFORE MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT TO THEM DAY" AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.
THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.
WAITING ON THIS ADMINISTRATION TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO?
REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE MAY 19TH A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH."
Sorry bout the caps, guys. this is taken from an email. I am soooo participating, hope you guys do too.
this also happens to be on the day i graduate, which is cool too.
I hate to play devils advocate but if ppl will still be driving that day, so really whats going to happen is for one day before and after may 19th is that they will make great money and on may 19th, they will make pretty crappy money. Plus there is public transit and buisnesses who will purchase it. Anyway, STARVE EM! ^_^
I really wish that would do it, but there are so many other factors. Even if what Anon said doesn't happen we'll still have to deal with the repercussions of falling demand. We're going to need gas until we develope another efficient, more available source of fuel. One day won't do all that much. But if we keep doing it then the Arab countries will eventually just take their oil byproducts somewhere else. Then, if we don't convince them to come back with a pricing fury we didn't expect, we'll be at a loss for oil. The drop in demand will also discourage any U.S. companies that drill and/or process oil.
It's really a lost cause to try and get gas that we don't want to drill for at a lower price. Start demanding the administration to research a new source of fuel. Not only will we keep many of the oil related jobs, but many new jobs will be created with new gathering and processing workers. :unsure:
[CAKE Wrote:anonymity,May 14 2004, 06:22 PM]so really whats going to happen is for one day before and after may 19th is that they will make great money and on may 19th, they will make pretty crappy money.
It's obvious that this isn't going to cripple the industry or anything that dramatic. but if this ends up being a large scale ordeal, what it will do is send a message. It's the gesture that counts. obviously, this is a nation that has trouble letting go of its wheels. This is understandable. I myself am still trying to deal with the fact that I cant take my car to college. Driving is like therapy for me. Whenever I'm depressed or whatever I go on long aimless drives while listening to reflective music.....
anyway...it's going to take a whole lot to make us look to alternatives, or cut back, so we just need a little push. we need to wake up and atleast do something, however small or inane. we cant let this run our lives.
SoulEvan,May 14 2004, 08:54 PM Wrote:Start demanding the administration to research a new source of fuel.
It's been done.
Search "cold fusion energy."
Cold fusion isn't a practical economic solution to general fuels, not to mention that it's not all that conceivable.
Quote:but if this ends up being a large scale ordeal, what it will do is send a message.
The only message it'll send is that American's are not only princess-y, but we're also as unfair as OPEC. The problem with simply not buying gasoline is that you're still going to drive around, and if you won't someone else will. These people lose $15-30 dollars when they're in the upper income percentiles of the Earth and they complain when people elsewhere are walking in "uncivilized" areas. The fact of the matter is this. If you really care about the gas prices just keep driving. Drive, and drive, and drive in your gasguzzling, natural resource wasting meatgrinders. Show OPEC that you'll put up with higher and higher prices. They'll price themselves so high that they'll soon simply fall apart. ONE of the leading holders in OPEC are gonna cheat. They'll break off and try to get a piece of the pie for themselves. Everyone else will follow suit and the oily oasis will tumble. Or maybe you need to just start saving up for a smartcar or plug in. :P
Oh, by the way. The price of all that extra oil will drop dramatically if this large scale plan is executed. Any smart tyrant will immediately get their grubby hands on it for their own dirty purposes.
Why would OPEC brake apart if they can charge whatever they want? And how does that make the price come down afterwards?
I say write the oil companies (en mass) so they know there are enough people to make alternatives commercially feasible.
There wont be anymore thats his point. But we still need the alternative fuel source, there is always hydrogen but im not too sure how that will work. But it deffinatley seems the best so far.
Um... hydrogen fuel cell has already been researched and developed. Really the only problem with it is that oil is still available... that is, they're not going to be opening up fuel cell stations while gas is still around. That being said, they are working on it... within the next 20-30 years, traditional gas cars will be gone, replaced by hybrids and fuel cell... and I forget the exact time scale, but I think it's somewhere around 2040-2050 that 90% of cars will be fuel cell and 10% will be hybrids. I got this from an issue of popsci, I'm looking for the right one so I can give the exact numbers or scan it or something. Anyway, the major problem is the oil companies... someone needs the impetus to make the fuel cell cars and make the cells available. It's not that big of a deal, it's being researched nonstop and will be the dominant fuel source.
so once the oil gets scarce out we'll just switch over to hydrogen in a week, right?
actually no. the longer we wait, the worse it is. it's not just cars that run on oil, remember? thousands of power plants do as well. with those out of commision, it will be mighty hard to just flip the hydrogen switch. it takes time and energy and powerr to establish that kind of change.
Not seeing where I implied that. I said it would take time and the oil companies would be a problem. The main response I was making was that there IS an alternative, and it DOES work.
Wha?,May 16 2004, 05:51 AM Wrote:I say write the oil companies (en mass) so they know there are enough people to make alternatives commercially feasible.
That way they can bury the coupla hundred tonnes of paper nd drill it up in a billion years time as more oil:D
Or, to put it more simply, writing letters of complaint never solves anything. It just allows people to exercise their seemingly god given right to ignore other people.
Oh... future problem with using hydrogen as a fuel...... water vapour can act as a greenhouse gas. Wind power modifies the weather patterns. Uranium is running out faster than oil.
All in all, we may end up switching back to pedal power.
hhmmm.... if EVERYONE didn`t buy gas on the 19th .... it wouldn`t matter anyway...
cause if people don`t buy gas on that day then people will stock up the day before or the day after....
which is kinda pointless...... cause they would make up the loss in those two days....
but hey... maybe they`ll get some sort of message from it....
the gas here has climbed to 95.9 cents a litre.... uummm.... for you americans or "other"...lol
that would be about $3.84 a gallon....
this is just getting ridiculous!!!!
I like the concept of people fighting back, but it won't work at all. However if everyone parked they're cars as much as posible, walked, rode skateboards, skooters and bicycles, even caravanned, that would definately give the oil companies trouble and force them to lower price per barrel.
The sad truth is people are so lazy that is will never happen. People will drive their gas guzzling cars and pay whatever it costs to do so, not only destroying the earth, but themselves and willing to go bankrupt to do it. Talk about a self destructive society :/
Thats a pretty bleak outlook. I walked to school everyday when my mom was driving my sister and offered me a ride. I would only take the ride if it was abnormally cold out. A few reasons why I did this, I liked being able to walk and play loud music, it helped wake me up. I think if its really starting to hit peoples wallets then people might actually think of public transit as an option.
if gas prices go up then public transportation may become more expensive. . . and then people will just keep driving more and gas will be more and public transportation will be more and people will still keep driving more etc. etc. etc.
but public transportation is so wierd! they need to get they're act together first before I'll step foot on a bus again!
Its probably cheaper for public transit companies to fill up, buying in bulk.
but gas is sold hat so many cents per litre or dollars a gallon for americans. The more you buy the ratio still stays the same and cost comes out to be quite a lot, using so much and all. But I could be wrong, I mean public transportation is funded by taxes and junk.
Plus you never see one fill up at the local shell or esso.
Quote:Why would OPEC brake apart if they can charge whatever they want? And how does that make the price come down afterwards?
Little econ lesson.
OPEC's driving the price of oil byproducts through the roof right? Obviously people are unhappy about it. We're all perfect examples of that. The people at OPEC know that we'll eventually either stop using their oil so much or switch to alternate fuels(hydrogen cells as G said) if they keep pressing us with the higher prices. I'm sure several of the slimy bastards are already thinking about breaking off from OPEC, starting their own oil jig with a lower price. They steal tons of the market share and our costs go down. OPEC's losing money, so another person breaks off to get his piece of the action before the price gets too low.
It's going to be a while before we can make a significant switch to hydrogen cells, and as much as I hate to say it there's oil in Alaska's wilderness. This is a similar situation to OPEC's past squeeze on the U.S. We need to start being a little more self-sufficient if just for the amount of time it'll take to switch to hybrids and cell cars. If you want to fuel your American Dream then you'll have to make some sacrifices. Land is one of them. There's an assload of wilderness in Alaska, you don't have to drill all of it, and you don't have to drill it forever.
If you're going to be an environmentalist about this then join me and we'll start destroying "civilization" ASAP. :P
Quote:I mean public transportation is funded by taxes and junk.
You're paying for it...why aren't you using it? Even simply to get to work or school. Use your car for trips to friends' homes, dining out, etc. :ph34r:
Of course....I don't use public transportation. I might start having to though with the gas prices. :D
Oil has been the least affected by price hikes if you look back a few years. In the late 70's I was paying anywhere from 75 to 90 cents a gallon then and getting only 8 miles to the gallon. Now I'm paying 1.85 and getting 30 miles to the gallon. Hmmm, have things really gone up?
jabbahunt,May 21 2004, 06:43 AM Wrote:Oil has been the least affected by price hikes if you look back a few years. In the late 70's I was paying anywhere from 75 to 90 cents a gallon then and getting only 8 miles to the gallon. Now I'm paying 1.85 and getting 30 miles to the gallon. Hmmm, have things really gone up?
considering our miles to the gallon hasn't been changing with the price. . I'd say yes. but then again I don't have enough money for a new car so I don't actually know the mileage of newer vehicles.
Public transportation is inherently flawed... actually, I don't have a car and I live on one of the most biked college campuses in the world... truth be told that's pretty much every California campus. But we've got bikepaths everywhere, and they're treated like streets. You should see rush hour in the morning, like an ant trail of bikes.
Anyway, back to public transportation, since I don't have a car, I take a bus to anywhere further than I'd like to bike. Today, in fact, I'm taking a bus to the train station to get back home for the weekend. I luckily get free bussing as it's part of my fees to go to college here. The flaw is in the schedule. First off, you can never get anywhere late night, at least if you want to get back. You also need to know when certain buses leave and if they close enough to where you're going. It's not like you can go to a bus stop, a bus will be there, and you hop on and go wherever you wish. Especially in the larger cities... in LA, buses are not the most reliable things because of traffic, what if you need to be somewhere important? And the San Fernando Valley is way too hot during the summer to walk and bike everywhere... so I will be driving a car, and I will be filling my tank.