"You Don't Have the GUTS to Boycott!"

from JoeUser Forums

Ahhh, yes. Another round of gas price hikes and the bawling begins. While I am not immune to it (driving being essential to my job, these price hikes SERIOUSLY impact our income, I am amazed at the ability of the average American to overlook the obvious.

The fact is, we collectively have far more power to influence the market than we know. While I don't see the insane profits of the oil barons as being reasonable, I don't see that we have any other choice to drive down demand. We want oil, and we want it cheap. As long as it is cheap, we feel free to drive fuel inefficient cars as if the supply of oil was endless. And while I don't believe the line of the hardcore environmentalists as to the limits of our oil supply, I can and do agree that it is far from endless.

Every time the price has surged in the last several years, we've begun serious talks about alternative energy. We've talked about more fuel efficient practices, we've talked about boycotting certain oil companies, but that's all it has been, talk. And as soon as the oil companies drop the prices a few cents, even the talk quickly fades.

The fact is, we as a culture do not have the fortitude to enforce a boycott. We don't want to make the sacrifices necessary to manipulate the market back downward. We don't want to limit our trips out with the car, or rideshare, or give up any inkling of our individuality. And the oil companies know this. As long as we will buy gasoline at $3.00 a gallon, they will continue to sell it.

My family's response to last year's price hikes in natural gas was to install a woodstove. We need two electric water heaters before winter, and we will be converted away from gas. While we still have to pay for electricity, the electricity is increasingly wind generated in our region, and will eventually be more competitive. And we have other steps planned to reduce our consumption further. Unfortunately, we really can't add getting rid of our car to the list of things we're doing; not for some time, at least.

I guarantee this much: if demand for gasoline dropped 20% overnight, we'd see a SHARP drop in prices. If we sustained the reduce in demand, the prices would stay down. And the side effect would be a much needed drop in emissions because there are fewer vehicles on the road. But until or unless we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reduce prices, we can expect them to continue to climb. And we, for our part, will continue to whine.

3,401 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
I dont think we need to boycott.  As you say, we just have to reduce our consumption.  And you are right, if we did, Gas would fall like a rock.  Oil Companies have no use for unused gas.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Great article Gid. I work in Oil and Gas exploration and production. I can say even a single percent of drop in comsumption will have an impact at the pump.

I agree that Americans as a whole are just not going to abide by a boycott. The answer isn't in a boycott though. It is in conservation. Everyone I know laughs at me when I ask if they can swing by and pick me up or meet me somewhere so we can carpool. I just shake my head.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Great article Gid. I work in Oil and Gas exploration and production. I can say even a single percent of drop in comsumption will have an impact at the pump.

I agree that Americans as a whole are just not going to abide by a boycott. The answer isn't in a boycott though. It is in conservation. Everyone I know laughs at me when I ask if they can swing by and pick me up or meet me somewhere so we can carpool. I just shake my head.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Colleen and I are fighting back the only way we know, hybrid cars, more insulation for less ac summer and les heat in winter.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
I definately think we out to do something. And individually conservation is the key and maybe going to the smaller stations to fill up. That means not Exxon, Mobil or Shell.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

And individually conservation is the key and maybe going to the smaller stations to fill up. That means not Exxon, Mobil or Shell.

Where do you think they get their gas from?

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Good article Gid.

My husband and I discussed this a few weeks ago. The next vehicle we buy will have to be some sort of hybrid. We won't be buying for 4-5 years, so we're hoping by then something nice and affordable will be on the market. I'd love to have a car that burns corn, or is a powerful electric.

We'll see. But even with gas the way it is I still practically live in my van with soccer, sleep overs, school events, etc. I grumble everytime I have to go into the gas station.

I never thought I'd see the day I spent $50 at the gas station in one visit.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
Bicycle sales should be soaring right about now.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
With India and China now becoming real competetitors for oil, I'm not sure that an American boycott would force the price down.

We need to use less not to reduce our personal expenditures for gasoline, but to reduce our dependence on imported oil, period. Our military and economic security is at stake as long as we have to deal with hostile foreign governments to keep things running here. The middle east is a mess, South America becomes more leftist by the day, and Canada? Not as friendly as they once were.

Without energy independence, America is doomed.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
I am not a greeny by any means... but I look at the success that E-85(85% Ethanol) fuel is having, and the fact that the Big 3 produce cars which have Flexfuel engines(they will run on either gas or E-85 fuel) for other markets, and I think North America and gas prices could really improve if car companies and Ethanol producers expanded into these programs.

There are more than a few countries which are now Energy independent with these changes, and such a change could tip the balance back towards independence for others.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm not sure what you mean by Canada not being as friendly as they used to be.
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
I'm not sure what you mean by Canada not being as friendly as they used to be.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
Consumption is not just the U.S.'s problem and no longer just the U.S.'s solution alone. We live in a global economy and macro-economics are at work here. The prices of Crude Oil isn't just based upon U.S. sales, it is based upon Global demand and as economies in the other parts of the world heat up more, consumption will rise. Even if the U.S. demand increase, other countries continual increase in demand will cause oil crude prices to rise.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
Consumption is not just the U.S.'s problem and no longer just the U.S.'s solution alone. We live in a global economy and macro-economics are at work here. The prices of Crude Oil isn't just based upon U.S. sales, it is based upon Global demand and as economies in the other parts of the world heat up more, consumption will rise. Even if the U.S. demand increase, other countries continual increase in demand will cause oil crude prices to rise.


We are still the largest consumers, and we have the highest gross domestic product. I assure you that if we and the other industrialized nations dropped our consumption 50%, prices would drop drastically. Third world nations simply don't have the money to pay highly inflated prices for oil.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top

We are still the largest consumers, and we have the highest gross domestic product. I assure you that if we and the other industrialized nations dropped our consumption 50%, prices would drop drastically. Third world nations simply don't have the money to pay highly inflated prices for oil.

Actually the proof is here.  People have started to cut back.  So much so that the Price of Oil has been plunging.  Will it continue?  I doubt it.  We will get use to $3/gal gas and go back to our old ways.  But the problem was this was so sudden, and people went "ouch", and they did cut back.  Once it becomes mainstream, it will go back to normal, and the price will go up again.  China and India are not going to cut back.

Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
one word:

biodiesel.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
The real impact will come when Governments realise that they can make countries such as the US and Australia (which i choose because we are both large countries with economies heavily dependent on oil), self sufficent by making some major changes quickly.
Move away from Oil based fuels, and mov to renewable energy, like;
Bio Diesel, Ethonol, Hemp oil, all three are easier to make than current fuels, lower pollutants, and with some investment just as efficent as the fuels we use today, this would help farmers, would not diminish jobs in the energy sector, and we could leave the Arabs to their own devices, as an aside we can pull out of the Arab states all together as we would not be relient on them to sustain our economies, the way I see it we could kill several birds with one stone. We already have the technology, and our farmers could use a hand in new viable industries. Also once we start producing vehicles on mass that can use these fuels we will then have acaptive maket for those countries wishing to use this technology, sooner someone will do what I am suggesting, if we wait it may be China or India who will have to do this to sustain there high levels of growth. Electric cars are great however the technology is still way behind the eight ball as yet.
On top of this we would be way ahead of kyoto on reductions of carbon emmissions, which would make us good green citizens without really having to take the economic pain that governments are so loath of when considering greenhouse gass issues. In essence no one would loose, except for the oil producers, except for the local producers because thier production could be used for longer and by important service related needs while the same companies could move into new forms of fuel production.