Price Of Gas!!!!!!!! Boycott

NEW RANTER COMIN UP:

OK, enough is enough.

Fact is price of gas is too high.

Harper and the rest of the trough dwellers ain't gonna help us plebians, being in the back pocket of big corporations as they are.

SO:

STARTING IN JUNE

My family (I've contacted them all) are not going to buy gas from ESSO (drew the name out of a hat) for ONE MONTH.

That's 6 drivers who aren't filling up at Esso for 30 days.

Miniscule drop in the bucket. HOWEVER.........if we all.......bla bla bla..........it WILL hurt them; and a kick in the nuts is all they understand. Bottom line. Profit and loss. Whatever.

I'm not going to debate "should-shouldn't", just going to do it.

Everyone is free to add their 2 cents of course.

Rant over

Ugg out.

I agree, Nugg.... I can't boycot the big boyz though, because I never use them. There's a small independent guy down the street from me that always has his prices around 5 cents cheaper, so he's got a pretty loyal customer base in this neighborhood.

Here's a new price list you can offer to Esso when you inform them you're boycotting them though

My $0.02: we're paying about half what most people in western Europe pay for gas. I don't like our prices, it's 123.9 cents a litre today where I live (it was 125.9 over the long weekend) and I have a strong suspicion the refiners are gouging us, but I find it hard to justify complaining in the absence of solid evidence for that. Besides, my fine old car ('93 Camry V6 LE) gets 26-28 mpg around town and 33-35 mpg on the highway and I drive only about 5000 km a year, it's not hurting me much.

Ohhh, frick...not THIS again...every summer I get an email from an enraged gas purchaser trying to get a boycott going.

I like the high prices and hope they go higher...in fact, I hope they DOUBLE!

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Just stop buying gas period; that will do it.

The profits are made on the refining side, and it doesn't much matter where you buy your gas, because of the agreements the refineries have. The Esso gas you buy at the station may not be refined by Esso.

What Western Europeans pay for gas is Western Europeans' problem. Here's some compelling evidence of gouging:

Here's why we have to do something. We are getting hosed more than we think. Remember the value of the CDN $$. In 2001 gas was .51 litre, crude wasw $45 barrel (est.) and dollar was .65. If you do the comparative math now,taking into account that our dollar, thus buying power (crude in US $)is approx 30% higher we are really getting taken. Considering exchange rates, the $45 barrel was $68 CDN and the current $63 barrel is $73. Yet, in 2001, $68 oil was .51 cent gas and in 2007, $73 oil is $1.05 gas. This is the clear and simple explanation why the oil companies, for 2 years in a row during this era, have posted the HIGHEST profit levels in the history of ANY corporations !!!!!!!

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Good one Zan: We used to have an independent who was about .05 cheaper. Used him all the time. Unfortunately, he closed up..........?? I would never suggest laying it to a poor independent, s'why Esso for a start.

I see from the link provided (thanks folks) there is one ongoing as we type. So, reckon I'll join them.

TTFN
Ugg.

Me and mine have been riding bicycles and using transit (as little as possible) for years now. You say the price of gas is up? Hadn't even noticed.

I can cross Calgary in similar time to a car (faster if it's just crossing downtown), I feel better, and I get to eat a bigger lunch.

Figure in car payments, insurance, servicing and gas and I'm probably saving about four to six hundred a month.

When I need a car, I rent a Cadillac. 'Bout twice a year.

Pangloss

Boycotts worked in the beginning but it won’t anymore because all the oil companies are sticking together.

You would have to boycott all the stations at once bit if you do that you run the risk of the oil companies shutting down their stations.

About ten to fifteen years ago all oil companies started to shut down a lot of their stations and it did not make sense at the time because the population was growing and auto sales were up.

They said that a lot of the service stations were not making but in reality they were closing the stations so they could keep the gas prices high.

So you can boycott all you want but the best way to teach the oil companies is to buy electric cars and trucks.

The best way to boycott is to buy a bus pass. At the very least, you will be doing something good for the environment

Go one step further - ride bikes, walk and when it is too far, then take the bus.

We'll all be fitter and happier for it.

Pangloss

Yeah, cars are LIES for the most part.
I have never even owned one or had a "real" license to drive one, I walk, cycle or bus wherever.
I am only even in a car about once a month. I tend to get motion sickness depending on the driver so it all works out okay.

Interesting analysis posted by Just the Facts too, lookin at things that way, it kinda does really stink.

Jon Stewart had some funny bit on the Daily Show last night sayin some thing about how the "unforseen problems" that always manage to drive up the price of gas were "Bizarrely consistent" and I couldn't agree more

if you aply the water-diamond principle to this situation, what does that mean?? (the theory being that the more useful something is, the more plentiful it will likely be and the cheaper it likely will be- useless stuff is generally the expensive stuff when viewed under this model- not so sure I am 100% sold on it but in many cases it works- just had to explain it in case it's even more obscure than I think it is)

The gas flucuations don't affect me at all due me not owning a car and taking the TTC every where I go. David Miller does like to use the high price of gas to nickel and dime the TTC users, but it's still a lot cheaper then driving in Toronto.

I do ride bikes, walk and run. But some people don't live as close to work as I do, so it makes it hard for them to bike.

Indeed gc - and this is where urban planning comes in. Want less traffic? Increase urban density, improve transit.

Expensive (at first), but blindingly simple.

Pangloss

Ahh, good point to introduce Pangloss, very important aspect of the whole "Cars are LIES" thing

In St.Catharines where I live, folks complain constantly about the high price of gas (tho it seems lower than many places are repotrting, but I digress) and also the steady death of our downtown AND the traffic at certain intersections at certain times of day

Right now our town (and I guess most of the region, but St.Catharines specifically) has our General Hospital basically in the dead-centre of downtown. However, we've been told that it has outlived it's usefulness and has to be torn down or something (the whole situation stinks to high heaven...) and a new one built. The pretty much "written in stone" new location for it?? The most logical place, naturally, out past the western limit of the town in the ridiculous mess of urban sprawl that's been growing unchecked for the past 10 or more years. There happens to be a river between 95% of the town and the new "conveniently located" hospital. There are 3 choices for crosing this if you are a pedestrian or cyclist, and a 2 more if you are able to take a highway (tho both the highway routes are pretty inconveniently located as far as the hospital goes anyways)

The area where our hospital is currently is expected to kind of die right out, leaving the core of our town dead as dead can be and making the "City of St.Catharines" a giant, idiotic swirl of sprawl with the heart totally ripped out. I can't listen to anyone kvetch about gas-price-related anything if they have not gotten involved at LEAST at the municipal voting level to try and reverse the totl dead-end course that seems to be laid out for our own town.

There are lots of solutions, but like PanGloss said, it'd be a short-term HUGE expenditure for long term huge gain- except that the "gain" would be spread out over every citizen and no one person would get mega-rich, so it'll never happen.

The same crappy system that makes the Oil companies able to take the whole country for suckers is very much alive and well at the municipal level as well. Think globally, Act locally dammit!!!