The High Price of Gasoline

I have recently received an e-mail from two different sources that is being circulated on the web. For those who may not have seen it or don't remember it, I reproduce it below:

"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 - $175, 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"

I am amazed that so many hair-brained schemes are so readily and so enthusiastically distributed on the web and the issues that prompt this outpouring of indignation. In this case it is the high price of gasoline.

First of all there are hundreds of people dying in the Dafur genocide. There are hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dying in their country even without counting our own brave soldiers. Our own country causes people to disappear - they call it rendition - and to be tortured. Some may very well be terrorists, but others are totally innocent and after being tortured are told, "so sorry, we made a mistake!" How many are never heard of again because their disposition covers up the mistake, we will never know.

We are having our phones tapped without any court warrants as provided for by our constitution and our laws. They tell us that this only involves the bad guys but how do we know. Our President tells us "Trust Me" but can we, as the Congress dominated by his cronies’ refuses to exercise any oversight. Corruption is rife. Legislation, inserted in the dead of night called "Earmarks" rewards those willing to pay either by so-called campaign contributions or by outright gifts of vacations and other "gratuities". This costs us untold billions while the Congress refuses to change the "system".

My friends there is a serious cancer growing on our body politic and we ought to rise up in anger and outrage.

BUT WHAT IS IT THAT TRULY OUTRAGES US! HIGH GASOLINE PRICES. I hate to say it but high gasoline prices are good for our nation. If high gasoline prices will cause us to use less gasoline that is a positive good. It would be better if the windfall from these high prices went into our government coffers where it could be used to repair our highways and our infrastructure, instead of into the pockets of the oil companies, but there is a finite amount of oil that can be pumped and no one has yet found a way to repeal the law of supply and demand. If the world tries to buy more oil than can be produced by suppliers prices will rise. Is there a way to prevent this? Yes! It was done during World War II. It is done with price controls and rationing. The time may come when this will be necessary but it isn't necessary yet and hopefully it will not become necessary. It should be used only during true emergencies.

I can think of many reasons not to buy from Exxon-Mobil. They are environmental predators. But boycotting them will not bring down oil prices. That is a pipe dream! What is driving the high price of gasoline is the high price of oil and that is a price that is a world price and it makes no difference where the oil is bought.

A while ago we heard of boycotting oil from the Middle East. Then it turned out that we only buy a small portion of our oil from the Middle East. Most of it we buy from Venezuela. But it makes no difference. In a sellers market if one country doesn't buy it another will. This is a true case of globalization.
Why the sudden rise in oil prices. Well the Iraq war is one. Iraq is pumping less oil now than under the oil for food program. China and India are another. They keep buying more and more. The saber rattling against Iran is probably the most immediate cause. The world and the oil markets are nervous about a cut off from that major source.

There is no short-range solution. Oil prices will fluctuate up and down over the months and maybe years to come. But there is only one trend in the long run and that is up. Get used to it!!!!!!! Get smaller, efficient cars.

Is there something our government can do? Yes! But its effects will only be long term. We can spend billions to develop alternate fuels, efficient means for using those fuels, while making sure that they do not spew CO2 into the air. If we do this we will become the suppliers to the world , a boon to our economy and to job creation and save the world in the process.

THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES!!!!!! JUST AS THERE ARE NO FREE LUNCHES!!!!!!