How we could really save oil and force down gas prices

Conservation, conservation, conservation, but in an intelligent manner!

from JoeUser Forums

Somewhat inspired by the article here by ForeverSerenity (One Day Gasoline Boycott - May 15), I wanted to speak up more fervently on how to really fix this problem and how to really bring down gasoline prices once and for all.

As if we all didn't know it was so simple, it really comes down to conservation of fuel. Cut back on consumption and we will affect gasoline prices. Unfortunately for the folks that are buying into the myth of a proposed one day gasoline boycott, such boycotts don't work because invariably people just buy gasoline before (topping off), or after the supposed boycott was supposed to happen, and they do *absolutely nothing* to cut back on real consumption.

That is the problem.  We must cut consumption and we need to approach the problem as if it was the national emergency (and global emergency) that it really is.  We need to stop playing around and ignoring the problem, and stop enriching the likes of Exxon-Mobil, and others that are fattening their wallets at our expense.

How then do we do it?  Again, we do it by elevating the issue to national emergency status and by mandating or very strongly encouraging all businesses in the country to switch to a 4 day work week, or a 9 day work period with the 10th day off for all employees.  It's a little painful for employees that would be requested to work an extra hour a day to make up the time and maintain their same pay as they experience now, but then again it would grant everyone an extra day off every week or every other week to use to rest and relax around their homes.

It would have to come with strong recommendations that the extra day off would be a day when people should strive not to drive, and not to use gasoline, or if they must travel they should use car-pools, public transportation or other means to get from point A to point B.  Even better still is that the extra days off would be used for people to ride bicycles, walk, or otherwise use environmentally friendly and exercise friendly means of transportation so that we'd have more than twice the benefit for everyone.

Point of fact, if most of us fat, lazy 'Americans' (U.S.A. citizenry) got off our duff and lost a few of the pounds that we are carrying around as we drive in our vehicles, we'd all get better gas mileage and we'd all be saving thousands of gallons of fuel, if not 10s, or hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel.

Anyway, if we would make the bold move to pretty much force all businesses to offer the equivalent of the federal government's "Alternate Work Schedule" which offers that 10th day off for employees that work an extra hour for 8 days in their 2 week pay period, we could really conserve a lot of fuel and would seriously push the price of gasoline back down as the oil companies watched their stockpiles grow around themselves.

It would buy more time for the automobile manufacturers to get more fuel efficient vehicles into the pipelines and would save us (the consumers) money by not having to buy fuel as often and by having less expensive fuel to buy when we did have to buy it.

2,725 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
(Now I'm sure some people will tell me this just isn't possible and businesses can't just do this, and that many employees can't adjust their schedules because of family obligations, etc....)
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
It is a vicious cycle. Force down prices, demand will go up. Prices go up (enough and $3/gal is not enough), and that will force down consumption.

Simply put, you can have cheap gas, or conserve it. You are not going to get both.
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Lets face the truth, we are addicted to oil and all of its by products. till we get serious about nuke energy {the only real solution} we are screwed, with no vaseline, and no tip.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Conservation is going to involve far more than simply changing driving habits or vehicles. We're also going to have to cut down on how we consume plastics as a huge amount of oil goes into the production of the plastic crap we throw away every day.

I haven't bought gasoline since 2004, and am doing what I can to reduce waste and use less plastics. I've installed CFL light bulbs in my home, and do my best to not use any more disposable products than absolutely necessary. All of these things affect the demand and price of oil.

But I do agree that conservation is the only intelligent way to go.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

I forgot to mention one other big area that could be impacted by changing our work schedules and getting people off the road 1 day per pay period -- that of the environmentalist's current fascination: global warming and vehicular emissions.

I disagree a bit about the viscious cycle that Dr. Guy mentions here:

It is a vicious cycle. Force down prices, demand will go up. Prices go up (enough and $3/gal is not enough), and that will force down consumption.

Simply put, you can have cheap gas, or conserve it. You are not going to get both.

Actually, again, I think what I've written about is the way to achieve a nice balance of both cheaper fuel and conservation.  Would some people see the falling fuel prices and be morons and jack up their consumption?  Possibly, but I think many would take the encouragement from their government leaders to *stay off the roads* unless it was absolutely necessary and treat that "day off" as a day when they are stickin' it to the oil companies.

On other days off, days of recreational events, family trips, etc., again the falling fuel prices might push up some demand despite what we may be told to do, but then again many people might follow the words of our government leaders to really start conserving and saving trips everywhere possible.  Eliminate unnecessary driving when possible and we can save an awful lot of fuel and in turn push down prices.  Live with the process for several months (at least through the summer months) and we'll all be happier.

 

Getting back to emissions and such, if we cut our consumption of fuel and cut back on the number of miles we drive, we can have a huge impact in environmental impact as we take vehicles off the road ways somewhere around 5 - 10% of the time.  I know that vehicular emissions account for only a tiny portion of our carbon output, but reducing these emissions would be an admirable goal and a great side effect of cutting back on unnecessary driving, and reducing the driving that is necessary for many people (i.e., driving to the work place).

 

Seriously, it is time that our leaders -- both Democrat and Republican, in Congress and in the White House -- stand up and show leadership.  Let the crop of clowns that are running for the White House stand shoulder to shoulder with W., Harry the Dingy one, and Nancy Pelosi and let them preach to us all that we *must* cut back on our fuel consumption to help keep our economy strong, help reduce our dependence (as Moderateman said: our addiction) on foreign oil, and help improve our national security by doing so.

It doesn't mean we shouldn't be working towards other fuels, and other sources of energy, but we have to treat this as the very serious problem it is.

Even as we've seen articles here at JU noting, Ethanol isn't the answer as we can't produce enough of the stuff without driving up costs in other area (i.e., in the food chain).  For electrical power, we need to go Nuclear and get over our reluctance to use that technology.  Building just a few new Nuclear plants, even if we use what some have cried to me is 50 year (or older) technology in doing so, we can produce quite a bit of our nation's energy needs without touching oil (outside of that which is used during the construction phase) to do so.  Build a dozen Nuclear plants over the next 10 years and retire at least half that many oil burning plants.  Better yet, make it 2 dozen Nuclear plants and a dozen retired oil burners and we may get somewhere.

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
If we really want to reduce driving we'll have to spend billions on building/upgrading mass transit systems in and around large cities and make their use mandatory for morning/evening commutes.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top

Possibly,

I'll see your possibly and raise you a definitely.

Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top

Masonm said:

Conservation is going to involve far more than simply changing driving habits or vehicles. We're also going to have to cut down on how we consume plastics as a huge amount of oil goes into the production of the plastic crap we throw away every day.

I haven't bought gasoline since 2004, and am doing what I can to reduce waste and use less plastics. I've installed CFL light bulbs in my home, and do my best to not use any more disposable products than absolutely necessary. All of these things affect the demand and price of oil.

But I do agree that conservation is the only intelligent way to go.

I agree here too Mason.  We have to stop doing stupid stuff like using plastic bottles all of the time.   I miss the days of my youth when we had Coke bottles that were heavy, thick, green glass bottles that were worth a nickle when we turned them in.  I'm sure some people will whine about safety (plastic bottles don't break when you drop them and don't result in sharp glass shards when that happens), but there has to be a way to stop using so darned much plastic for everything.

Milk used to come in paper boxes, so do O.J. and such.  Paper boxes with waxy coating.  We almost never see those anymore, never mind the thought of milk in a glass container.

We are an incredibly wasteful society, and yes, a lot of petroleum products go into that waste.  Far too much really, but we can do something about it if we wanted to and came together to do it as a national goal.

Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Great article Terp! [and thanks for the mention!]

Your ideas here are good. I agree with the less consumption and trying our hand at conservation. Truthfully, this is the only thing that will work. If we don't we are going to continue to hurt from these rising prices that affects every aspects of our lives!





We are an incredibly wasteful society, and yes, a lot of petroleum products go into that waste. Far too much really, but we can do something about it if we wanted to and came together to do it as a national goal.


Well-said! We have to start somewhere. We can do it I know we can if we all do a little at a time! We've all gotten so used to our our wasteful ways that we can't even see beyond the messenger to take these problems and start chipping away at them!