i keep getting email, or seeing post on other boards sayin dont pump you gas on may 15.
that way the oil companies will lose like 2 billion dollars an some change.

does anybody really think this will work

This has been tried several times with no success. I think the best way is to just boycott one company every time you pump (Chevron).

I haven't heard about the thing on May 15th, but it won't work.
People will fill up the day before or the day after, and they'll still use the same amount of fuel. The only way to make this work is for everyone to just stop driving for anything that isn't totally necessary.

Walk to the store, bike to work, take the bus, hop on a train, don't mow your lawn, sell your SUV and buy something small......... etc................

You can break their backs if you stop useing their products.

Originally posted by KidOK
This has been tried several times with no success. I think the best way is to just boycott one company every time you pump (Chevron).

that doesn't work either.

we don't have any chevron refineries around here but chevron gas stations. where does the gas come from you say?

well if you were to go to the truck rack at any refinery or distribution point ( like harbor island in seattle ) you will see pipes labled exxon, bp, shell, chevron, tesoro, ect.
all gas grades are the same. it's the additives that make it a brand.

I saw on the news this morning that some Govenor in TX somewhere is telling the people of his City/Town to boycott Exxon/Mobil.

Unfortunately in this case you know who he's going to hurt? The people who own and work at the stations, not the big guys.

This is totally ridiculous. As people said, you'll still use same amount of gas if you drive to work/school/doctor.

How about people stop buying SUV's unless they absolutely need them because of the road and weather conditions

[edit on 2-5-2006 by Aelita]

Also, if the gas companies suffer a loss for a day, then they will just, sensibly enough, have to raise the price of their product to make up for that loss. Its prefectly within their rights.

Only way to hurt them is to stop consumption,if no one buys their fuel on the retail level,they will just sell it on wholesale level to companys people are patronizing,no way of getting around it

We have to pick one. Exxon for example. Stop buying gas from them for a year no matter what. Even if theyre selling it for 50cents, dont buy it. The following year, hit someone else and on and on. We have all the power to break them. They laugh uncontrolably when people dont buy their gas for a day. Its meaningless. We have to punish them for a year.

Unless you can get every commercial truck, train, and boat to boycott a specific company as well, this would only harm the owners of the stations, and the employees they would have to fire. Innocents who have little say in the price.

it doesn't matter who you buy your gasoline from.

Infact that gasoline at the Exxon station may not have even come from an Exxon refinery but even if it did it still doesnt matter. Why? Because you are still going to use same gasoline from a different company.

I've received the same email as many people, stating that if you don't buy gasoline from Exxon/Mobil then they will be forced to lower their prices and then the others will have to do the same to keep up with the competition.

Gasoline/Oil are not like widgets produced in a factory. Gasoline prices are reflected by the weekly government reports (every wednesday) that show the latest stockpiles based off of figures provided by all the US oil companies. The good news is the trend of decreasing stockpiles has reversed so we can expect some cheaper gasoline for the short term.

The only way to reduce gasoline prices is to reduce demand. When gasoline supplies are shrinking and you say "screw Exxon I'm going to Valero" you do nothing at all to help the prices. But theoretically let's say this somehow made Exxon lower their prices and the others followed. The rate of the shrinking supplies will increase rapidly as more people do less conserving. Then we're out of gas and the price doesn't matter anymore.

The fight here should be in supporting somehow other forms of energy then gas; until we need it to our cars and so many other things, not buying from one company will just give more space to other companies to get in their place.