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Old and In the Way Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 06:20 PM
Original message
An interesting e-mail on using the power of the net to address
windfall energy profits. Now, I have mixed feelings about the message. While I think it has merit on a tactical way to lower prices short term, lower gas prices delays the day of reckoning where we need to retool our infrastructure to address a post peak oil economy.

-----------------------------------------

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It ' s worth your consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon by next 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 on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 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.

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 wimp out at this point.... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group 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 fac! e it, yo u 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. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.

THIS CAN REALLY WORK
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 06:23 PM
Response to Original message
1. I have only bought CItgo Gas for about 2 years now.
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Fridays Child Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 06:24 PM
Response to Original message
2. Here's what snopes.com has to say...
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phantom power Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 06:26 PM
Response to Original message
3. I'm skeptical that it can do anything about gas prices, however...
Exxon certainly deserves to be boycotted for being the "James Watt" of oil/gas companies. And if it actually did lower gasoline prices, that's gravy.
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Fridays Child Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 06:33 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. Read the link at post #2.
The point being made at snopes.com is that ExxonMobil can simply sell its gas through other outlets. In other words, they will succeed in selling their gas to us, whether we know it (or like it) or not. The better approach is to boycott all Middle East oil. Here's a list of companies that do not purchase, refine, or sell Middle East oil:

BP, AMOCO, ARCO

PHILLIPS 66, TOSCOPETRO, PHILLIPS PETRO
Phillips 66, Circle K, 76, Kendall, Tosco

KOCH PETRO GROUP LP
Holiday

CITGO PETRO CORP
Citgo, Petro Canada (In Tucson and other towns, Citgo is sold at convenience stores. For a list of Citgo retailers near you, go here: http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp)

MURPHY OIL USA INC
Murphy USA,

CONOCO INC
Conoco

TESORO HAWAII CORP, TESORA PETRO CORP
Tesora

US OIL & REFG CO
Independent Gas Stations in the Pacific Northwest

SUNOCO
Sunoco

HESS Hess Express

SINCLAIR
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phantom power Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 06:41 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. I'm of the persuasion that it's best to just use as little as possible...
no matter who sells it or whose ground it comes from. For reasons similar to the snopes argument, attempting to boycott middle eastern oil isn't likely to work very well either. There will always be countries happy (or desperate) to buy it, if Americans don't.

And... economics or geopolitics aside, every drop is killing us via climate change.
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Fridays Child Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 06:56 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. Yep...
...reducing our use of ALL oil is the only feasible action.
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democrat_patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 06:26 PM
Response to Original message
4. Sincerely, B. Jones VP Citgo Gas Company

Who thinks up this nonsense? This is the only way to stop the pricew gouging?
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Old and In the Way Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Apr-14-06 09:39 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. Well, no, we could expect the federal government to take action.
:rofl:

Seriously, I'm agnostic about this. Seems that cheap gas will only assure more sold and demand increase. What's really needed is a better vision for what we'll do when the demand starts outstripping supply. And no e-mail chain will provide the solution.
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