May 19 = Dont buy gas day?

[nickb]

I got an e-mail with this and I am wondering how effective it could be and how many people are taking this serious?


"IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES & CANADA 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, WEDNESDAY 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 ADMIINSTRATION 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 PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

 

[TURBO 6]

If you don't buy gas for one day you'll buy it the day after. Big deal. They'll get 10 billion on the 20th. They are going to get your money one way or the other, unless you start walking.

 

[charleslong]

I will skip the 19th, but I dont put gas in my car but once a week, and its normally 10 bucks now 15 b/c of the rise in cost.

 

[Mygn421]

The only way this would work is if no one DRIVES and consumes gas for that day. We need to start drilling for oil over here. But that would only piss off the left wing democrat wackos.

 

[SinistrV6]

Baloney!

Do a search for gas prices on this site. This e-mail (or one like it) goes around every time there's a spike in gas prices. Doesn't work, wouldn't work. There are no "stockpiles" for oil companies to "choke on". Now if no one bought gas for a month, then prices might come down. Not because of some big oil company conspiracy, but because of the same supply and demand laws of economics that drove them up in the first place.

Here's a good article (from The Motley Fool)to explain why/how gas prices are what they are:

Oil Hits $40
Friday May 7, 1:39 pm ET
By Bill Mann
For a brief time this morning, the price of June crude oil futures crossed the $40 level for the first time since the Gulf War in 1991. Ouch! Rising oil prices can't possibly be helpful for the story of a rebounding economy, can it? It must be some sort of conspiracy -- after all, this comes little more than a month after the OPEC cartel announced that it was reducing oil production by a million barrels a day. I should note that given the recent downdraft in the dollar, oil prices seem to have risen substantially here, but if you remonetize in euros, for example, the "spike" is much less severe.
The cost of raw crude feedstock is of course a component of what makes prices at the pump -- and all of the other places oil is used -- higher. But although I'd never want to be accused of carrying water for OPEC, it's not really their policies that have made oil prices skyrocket. It's demand, it's speculation, it's fear of further terrorist attacks on supply in the Middle East, it's the fact that we've put so many potential sources of domestic production off limits. All of these things have costs, and all of them get passed on to the end user.
And perhaps most importantly, it's a whole host of regulations and lack of refinery capacity in the U.S. that have caused such pain among consumers, among airlines, among shipping companies, and so on. This was the thesis I used two years ago in selecting Valero (NYSE: VLO - News) for The Motley Fool Select, the precursor to Tom Gardner's Motley Fool Hidden Gems. There hasn't been a new refinery built in the U.S. in the last 20 years, as site requirements have made it impossible. As a result, the refiners run constantly at close to 100% capacity. So the 3% increase in oil demand has to come from somewhere else, and that somewhere else isn't the cheapest. It never is, and with many of the U.S. markets getting ready to cut over to summer formulations, that supply will even be less available than at present. Thus, the higher costs.
So when you read articles about Americans' renewed love of horsepower in cars, and you see the Valero chairman commenting that this is the best environment he's ever seen for refining profits, you know that the refining bottleneck is ferocious.
It is generally a net negative for refineries for oil prices to skyrocket as it compresses margins. In this case, though, prices are high, and companies like Valero, ChevronTexaco (NYSE: CVX - News), and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM - News) have increased their refining efficiency. But it still isn't enough. Saudi officials have even pledged to offer money to invest in two new refiners in the U.S., but a poll of the major refiners already operating here will tell you something emphatic -- the money isn't the issue. And if Valero's figures are accurate, that volume demand continues to increase in spite of rising petroleum product prices at the consumer level. What does that tell you?
Basic laws of supply and demand tell me that the chance of oil prices coming down to OPEC "target levels" of $23-$28 any time soon are fantasy. It also tells me that those $40 tanks of gas I recently complained about may continue to be the norm. I'll think differently only when officials start getting serious about addressing the undercapacity for refining.
Bill Mann owns none of the companies mentioned in this article.




Until the EPA relaxes laws enough to make building new refineries in this country feasible, or the liberal nature nazis stop fighting every attempt to access our own oil reserves in Alaska and offshore, our dependence on foreign oil will keep us at the mercy of the price of crude oil.

If we had more of our own or more refining capacity to produce gasoline we could meet the increased demand. One day of "not buying gasoline" will not even be noticed by the oil industry. Sorry.

 

[TurboBuckeye]

I won't be ready to fill up until long after the 19th. Hopefully

 

[b231v6]

I remember that from 1980!!!!!!!

 

[TurboJunky]

This concept is total BS. If you participate you'll be wasting your time. Read here.

 

[kevans]

Ok...and also to hit the petrolium industry don't buy anything plastic, don't use any electricity since most of it is gas turbine generated...this means tv's, computers, phones, cell phones, ac's/heaters, don't use any plumbing since the pipes are plastic, don't let your wives use any cosmetics, don't drive on asphalt roads, don't drive all together, don't go to work since they'll use electricity, strip your roof off, I could go on and on. Essentially just ride a horse everywhere you go...oh wait they put off methane and those damn oil companies will steal that away too.

Kev