Gas prices, enough is enough!

[Neo Challenger]

I had to get gas for my mom's lawn mower today, and paid $2.52 a gallon! I'm sick of being screwed at the pump, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Doesn't it honk you off that the media announces a rise in the price of crude and the gas stations jack the price, despite the fact that the price of a barrel of oil at that moment has nothing to do with the gas that's already out there?

Unfortunately, it's that same barrel that the oil companies have us over. We have to drive, so they can dictate prices and there's nothing we can do but pay. We need to send a message to the oil companies, and to the government as well, that something needs to be done. Well, I have an idea, and I'd like everyone's help: it's called "No Gas Wednesday". Basically, we refuse en masse to buy gasoline on Wednesdays; if enough people do this, the oil companies will have to take notice. And if one day a week doesn't work, we'll make it two!

Now, just because we're not buying gas doesn't mean we can't patronize the gas station's convenience stores. It's not their fault the oil companies are bent on taking us for a ride. Just don't buy gas! I want this to be heard coast to coast, No Gas Wednesday!!

[Shanti418]

See, I think the main four problems with gas are....

1. Yes, it costs more, but when the oil companies are making record 7 billion dollar profits, methinks the price of oil shouldn't exactly translate to a price hike.

2. It's a horrible pollutant.

3. It's a non renewable resource that will run out if not in our lifetime, then in our children's lifetime, and at that point we'd better already have an alternative energy infrastructure set up or else......

4. The control, usage, and selling of oil has killed millions of people and will kill millions more.

[Professor Smooth]

You think that's bad? Check out gas prices in the UK. 2.52 per gallon is a friggin' STEAL!

Also, if nobody buys gas on Wednesdays, more people will buy it on Thursday. The oil companies will not go out of business after having to wait another day for their profit.

If you want to stick it to 'em, here's an idea: Don't drive as much. Do you really need to drive everywhere you go? Trust me, walking the 5 blocks to Burger King will do you good. Invest the 50 dollars in a bike for longer distances.

Giant SUVs aren't helping matters any either, but that's a rant I'll save for another time.

[Kup_1]

You think that's bad? Check out gas prices in the UK. 2.52 per gallon is a friggin' STEAL!

Also, if nobody buys gas on Wednesdays, more people will buy it on Thursday. The oil companies will not go out of business after having to wait another day for their profit.

If you want to stick it to 'em, here's an idea: Don't drive as much. Do you really need to drive everywhere you go? Trust me, walking the 5 blocks to Burger King will do you good. Invest the 50 dollars in a bike for longer distances.

Giant SUVs aren't helping matters any either, but that's a rant I'll save for another time.

I have to agree. I used to whine about the price of gas....

Until I realized that what we pay for a gallon here in the US, is what many people pay for a liter!

[Obfleur]

I had to get gas for my mom's lawn mower today, and paid $2.52 a gallon!

You pay $2.52 a gallon.
In Sweden we pay $5.5 a gallon.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!! Feel sorry for me.

[Eline]

I have to agree. I used to whine about the price of gas....

Until I realized that what we pay for a gallon here in the US, is what many people pay for a liter!

That is true. We pay that per litre, and it's going up as well.

Good thing that I don't have a driver's licence and can cycle everywhere.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

yeah im sorry but what the US pay and what everyone else pays is nothing.

u know what the best selling car in the world is, the ford pickup SUV with a 5 litre engine, they sell a million a year or somthing.
All in the US mainly.

if u stopped drving dumb cars over there u might help the world. but i dont see that, the US is to insular. "look at our fuel costs!" - no look at the worlds.
look what car u waste fuel in. u dont need a 5 litre car to go shopping in. learn somthing.

Id like to point out, that the ford in question is one of the worst built cars seen in europe. recent test give it 1 star. for the same cost u can have a BMW with a still large 3 liter engine thats very well made and very fast.
US = dumb on cars.

recently china entered the market, and in time they will account for 1 third of the fuel wasted in cars. we cant meet demand anymore. oil cars will be gone in 10 years

[Metal Vendetta]

I'd just like to point out that:
1. My car is a 1.4 litre engine, which makes it the largest capacity engine I've ever owned.
2. My company gives me a fuel card, so I never have to pay for gas
3. I still hardly ever use the thing. I prefer walking, that's how I stay thin and good-looking.
4. Neo Challenger, you are both funny and tragic at the same time.

[Best First]

The price of fuel for me bike...

is thighs of steel beeatchs.

Agree with general sentiments expressed, except for the unneccessary point 4 in MVs post. Who knows someone might read thsi and learn something, or they might read you insulting them and that could tend to discredit the more valid points that are being made - knock it off mate.

[Metal Vendetta]

Sorry but I find not buying gas on Wednesdays (but still using the service station shops etc.) both funny and tragic. It wasn't meant as an insult, but it seems like the weirdest boycott I've ever heard of. Stop buying gas on Wednesdays and you'll bring stability to the oil markets? Restore confidence in the Saudi royal family? Bring peace to the middle east? What, if anything, will it do?

It's all very well saying ""We'll show these oil companies buy not buying their product one day a week" but it just means people will have to buy more on Tuesdays because running out of gas on a Wednesday would be a real pain in the arse. And I doubt any of the oil companies are going to sweat much as long as W is in the Whitehouse anyway.

Just calling it as I see it. Like I say, I don't pay for gas any more, but at least I drive an economical car sparingly. I find this whole argument to be the equivalent of me bitching about the price of cigarettes, and therefore both funny and tragic:

"I'm going to stop buying cigarettes on a Wednesday to show them that these prices are ridiculous! I'll get two packets on a Tuesday, that'll show 'em!"

FFS.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

I honestly think the US has alot to answer for when it comes to the cars they buy.
A 2.0 engine is considered large in europe, but in the US is tiny.

China is looking to double world oil requirements in the next 5 years... scary

[Neo Challenger]

Having lived in France, I'm aware that gas prices in Europe are higher than here in the US. And I totally agree about SUVs, they are an unnecessary evil, a sad representation of the mentality of many Americans that "bigger is better". My vehicle BTW is a GMC Sonoma, a small pickup with a four-cylinder engine. I pretty much just use it to get to work and back, and so I can usually go about a week and a half on half a tank of gas. But in a country where many people rely on cars to get to their less-than-living-wage-paying jobs, anything over two dollars a gallon can be a real hardship. I often find myself eating ramen and TV dinners several times a week because I've had to pay through the nose for gas.

I do have a bicycle, a very nice one actually, but unfortunately US drivers are completely oblivious to cyclists, and I have no desire to be run down by some idiot who can't be bothered to look out for a guy on a bike.

BTW Metal Vendetta I'm not insulted. And I realize not buying gas one day out of the week probably won't accomplish much. But if a majority of the millions of drivers in the US didn't buy gas for one day, with the threat of making it two or three days, someone would notice.

And I agree that as long as the US gov't is in the pocket of oil companies both foreign and domestic, things are unlikely to change.

[Metal Vendetta]

Dammit, you're not funny or tragic any more And I agree with what you say, I just don't think a boycott will work that way. If Bush's plans for Alaska come to fruition then maybe gas prices will drop but short of the US invading the whole middle east and taking over production themselves the situation as it stands will probably just get worse. I read that a large part of the problem is a major shortage of refineries around the world, the ones we have just can't keep up with demand.

And what the hell are the Chinese thinking? Surely now they should be looking at alternative sources before they commit to using up even more of the planet's extremely expensive and dwindling oil supply...

[Best First]

I find this whole argument to be the equivalent of me bitching about the price of cigarettes, and therefore both funny and tragic

then state the arguement is funny and tragic rather than the person. easy, see?

[Professor Smooth]

I've been pretty lucky on my bike thus far. I get hit on occassion, but it's usually so minor that the driver of the car (alright, I'll admit, it's NEVER been a car, it's ALWAYS been an SUV) doesn't even feel the need to stop and make sure I'm alright.

The sarcasim, she drips off of that post!

[Neo Challenger]

As far as I know, there is a lack of refineries, and many of the ones here in the US are in need of maintenance etc. Of course, many of the same people who bitchandmoan about gas prices are the first to put up a fight when a company wants to build a new refinery "in their backyard", which is why there aren't many new refineries.

Sometimes the stupidity just makes me wanna cry...

[Best First]

problem is that by keeping gas cheap you keep the culture of people driving everywhere

[Professor Smooth]

problem is that by keeping gas cheap you keep the culture of people driving everywhere

I swear, I know people who would drive from their door to their car if at all possible.

My choice to cycle instead of drive has so many positives and so few negatives:

Positives:
1) Cost: I don't have to drop 20-100 bucks every week, if it gets totalled, I'm not out $40,000.
2) Traffic: Pretty easy to avoid traffic on a bike.
3) Parking: Lock it to a post somewhere.
4) Physical activity: You'd be amazed at how far those couple of miles a day go as far as keeping in relatively decent shape.
5) Entertainment: I think riding's fun. I think driving's dull as hell.

Negatives:
1) People don't assume that anyone makes their way around town in anything other than a large lumbering vehicle, so they don't tend to see you. This usually leads to pain and money spent on releiving said pain.

[Best First]

move to Brittany, people are nice to cyclists in Brittany.

[Professor Smooth]

move to Brittany, people are nice to cyclists in Brittany.

Sounds good. I was looking for a place to live when I finish working in Japan.

[Scraplet]

And what the hell are the Chinese thinking? Surely now they should be looking at alternative sources before they commit to using up even more of the planet's extremely expensive and dwindling oil supply...

This is only one aspect of the fact that the Chinese are determined to industrialise very rapidly. At the end of the day, they are only making the same mistakes that the developed world has made, and we are not particularly showing any lead on how to do things better.

For example, the Chinese thirst for raw materials mean that they are prepared to take unsorted municiple waste and waste electronic equipment, essentailly for recycling, to fuel their manifacturing.

So, there are many industrialised nations happily shipping this rubbish to China (and much of asia, africa and south america) where it is being 'recycled' in very primitive, environmentally damaging ways. You have probably seen pictures of kids stifting through what are essentially landfill sites for recyclables. These areas are near the shipping routes (so the stuff can be delivered). The piles of rubbish therefore, are usually on top of what was once the paddy fields. So, there is no going back for these communities. And their drinking water is screwed.

Most of this (and worse) should be prevented by the Basel Convention (apart from the US who are not signatories, suprise, suprise!), but most signatory contries do not enforce this rigorously enough. The UK is very gulity of this.

For more info http://www.ban.org/

Anyway, I'll get off my high horse. But if China is prepared to degrade its own environment and harm its own popuation's health for industrialisation, they won't give a monkeys that they are using the last few oil resoures in the process.

[Predabot]

What's really sweet is the fact that I read last week in the papers that the political climate in china is getting rather hot because of the massive pollution.

Apparently it's gotten so bad in some places that people for the first time in a long while get out and demonstrate. Some are even talking about a powder-keg situation.

Let's just see how it turns out.

Oh, and wasn't it estimated somewhere that the oil-reserves will begin to dwindle significantly in about 10 years? Sounds rad. Then we'll see change in some form atleast. I wonder if organic composite-materials will acctually start replacing plastic then?

[Scraplet]

Then we'll see change in some form atleast. I wonder if organic composite-materials will acctually start replacing plastic then?

I'm going to set up a business mining landfills - plastic will be worth as much as precious metal!!

[Kup_1]

I honestly think the US has alot to answer for when it comes to the cars they buy.
A 2.0 engine is considered large in europe, but in the US is tiny.

China is looking to double world oil requirements in the next 5 years... scary

I have to agree. I so many of those soccermoms in huge hulking SUV's rinning everywhere!

My new car is a luxury car, but a smaller one. A Caddy Catera. I keep it tuned up, and dont guzzle gas.

If even half of these people who have these huge beastly fugly cars would give them up....

Well, we wouldnt be having these issues.