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Don't Buy Petrol On This Day....

22 replies

SleepyJess · 12/05/2005 16:30

I just got an email saying this.. (below). Sounds feasible, and worth a try methinks!

IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN GREAT BRITAIN DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF PETROL FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION POUNDS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND" DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF PETROL THAT DAY. THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.

WAITING ON THIS GOVERNMENT TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED A FORTNIGHT AGO?

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF PETROL GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC.

WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD.

FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE MAY 19TH A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF GREAT BRITAIN SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

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lunavix · 12/05/2005 16:31

Possibly a bit pointless as there will be a lot of people still buying it!

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dyzzidi · 12/05/2005 16:34

Well we have to give some things a shot!!!

If it works great!

I have done my bit and forwarded it to friends

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lima · 12/05/2005 16:43

how do you think oil companies manage when the vast majority of filling stations are shut on Christmas day?

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Mud · 12/05/2005 16:46

um not sure the whole campaign is sound anyway, although willing to be convinced otherwise

the only people this will affect will be the forecourts because if you don't buy petrol on a specific day, you will buy it the day before or the day after - why that should affect the oil companies in the way this email suggests makes no sense to me at all

anyway the price is the govt. tax mainly

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Chandra · 12/05/2005 16:46

I think that we should be campaigning for lowering the amount of taxes in petrol rather than against the industry. My country was the 5th producer of crude oil and, TBH, when everybody was complaining about the prices set by the producing countries, the industry was barely sustaining itself under ridiculously low prices. If petrol is far more expensive in UK than in the continent it's because this country has set itself very high taxes. And the government know that, probably that's why they don't do much about the subject...

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Tinker · 12/05/2005 17:35

Look here

Just stuck that email into Google, read result.

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lima · 12/05/2005 17:37

well done Tinker - I knew it was rubbish

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SleepyJess · 12/05/2005 18:36

Oh well.. I knew the wise people of MN would put me right if I was quoting rubbish! Sorry.

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SleepyJess · 12/05/2005 18:37

But who is to say that it has not been added to an Urban Myth site just to make people not DO it??! That site is one of the cheapy pop-up infested ones!

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Mud · 12/05/2005 18:39

because it doesn't make economic sense

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hunkermunker · 12/05/2005 18:40

Snopes is a good source of info regarding everything internet-myth-related. I often tell people to go there when they fill my inbox with spam

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lima · 12/05/2005 18:43

sorry SleppyJess - din't mean to sound rude - a close friend of mine works for an oil co and tells me a lot of stuff.

BTW remember the blockade a few years back - the oil cos couldn't get the petrol out to sites and it didn't cause a storage problem.

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gscrym · 12/05/2005 18:44

There is something in it. The oil companies have a very tight distibution schedule and any upset in this causes them huge problems as it knocks on to other things. As Chandra say, it's not just the increasing oil price but the level of tax imposed by the government. As with any comodity, production costs increase, so does the price.

Someone needs to invent an engine that runs on used nappies, lets face it, there's planty of them!

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gscrym · 12/05/2005 18:46

Sorry if what I've said contradicts Lima, I live near Grangemouth and see the amount of tankers going in and out. There was also a protest last week where drivers picketed the refinery.

I do agree with Chandra though.

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lima · 15/05/2005 09:10

gscrym - did you read the rationale on Tinker's link which outlines why it wouldn't work?

Origins: Although
it went into hiding for several years, the one-day "gas out" craze is back ? and with it a reminder that protest schemes that don't cost the the participants any inconvenience, hardship, or money remain the most popular, despite their dubious effectiveness. A one-day "gas out" was proposed in 1999, and a three-day-long event was called for in 2000, but both drew little participation and had no effect on retail gasoline prices because they were based upon flawed premises. This year's version is no different.

First of all, everyone's "not purchasing a drop of gasoline for one day" will not cause oil companies to "choke on their stockpiles." Oil companies run their inventories on a weekly basis, and since the "gas out" scheme doesn't call on people to buy less gasoline but simply to shift their date of purchase by one day, oil company stockpiles won't be affected at all.

Next, merely shifting the day of purchase will not "hit the entire industry with a net loss of over $4.6 billion." Consumers won't be buying any less gasoline under this "gas out" proposal; they'll simply be purchasing gas a day earlier or a day later than they usually would. The very same amount of gasoline will be sold either way, so the oil companies aren't going to lose any money at all.

By definition, a boycott involves the doing without of something, with the renunciation of the boycotted product held up as tangible proof to those who supply the commodity that consumers are prepared to do without it unless changes are made. What the "gas out" calls for isn't consumers' swearing off using or buying gasoline, even for a short time, but simply shifting their purchases by one day. Because the "gas out" doesn't call on consumers to make a sacrifice by actually giving up something, the threat it poses is a hollow one.

Not buying gas on a designated day may make people feel a bit better about things by providing them a chance to vent their anger at higher gasoline prices, but the action won't have any real impact on retail prices. An effective protest would involve something like organizing people to forswear the use of their cars on specified days, an act that could effectively demonstrate the reality of the threat that if gasoline prices stay up, American consumers are prepared to move to carpooling and public transportation for the long term. Simply changing the day one buys gas, however, imparts no such threat, because nothing is being done without.

Moreover, the primary potential effect of the type of boycott proposed in the "gas out" messages is to hurt those at the very end of the oil-to-gasoline chain, service station operators ? the people who have the least say in setting gasoline prices. As such, the "gas out" is a punch on the nose delivered to the wrong person.

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SueW · 15/05/2005 09:26

It would have way more effect if everyone worldwide refused to use their car for one day and found an alternative way of getting around, preferably walking!!

Except that isn't going to happen is it?

I'm doing my bit for the environment and 'boycotting' petrol purchases - I moved to a job closer to home that I can walk to, took a one third wage cut and I am still better off financially.

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NotQuiteCockney · 15/05/2005 09:28

Me too, SueW. We have a shared car, which we use every couple of weeks, if that. I personally don't drive at all.

If the real costs of petrol were included (asthma, global warming, obesity, pollution), it would be much more expensive.

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suzywong · 15/05/2005 10:42

How much is a litre over there these days?
We pay the equivalent of approx 45p

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wordgirl · 15/05/2005 10:49

84p a litre here suzywong

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suzywong · 15/05/2005 11:04

it got up to 81p I remember last time is was hitting the headlines and there was a proposed boycott and that was way back in 2000 I think.

Just goes to show you how much of it goes in taxes

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SueW · 15/05/2005 13:06

NQC - maybe we should start our own email campaign to publicise other events?

There's already a Walk to Work week but only in some areas I think. And there's a \link{http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/Car Free Day 22 Sept annually}.

Maybe they need some free email publicity.

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suedonim · 15/05/2005 13:13

Apart from the fact that nothing would be achieved by such action, (oil production can be tunred on/off as easily as a tap) I'm not sure why anyone would want to do it anyway. Oil co's make between 1&2p/L profit - not a huge amount - and exploration costs are huge. Most of the cost in the UK is due to taxes. If the concerns are environment then fossil fuel use needs to eschewed totally, by giving up cars, air travel, imported goods etc and not just putting off a petrol purchase from one day to the next.

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