Every time the price of gas goes over $1.25/L, emails full of exclamation points start circulating:
"DO NOT BUY GAS ON [...fill in the date...]!!!!"
Let's think about why this is basically a waste of time and why oil company execs probably have a big belly laugh around the water cooler when they start going out.
Select any date and say "Don't Buy Gas" -- and what are people who participate going to do? Fill up a couple of days before or the day after.
Gas companies know this. They know they just have to wait out the day - and it's only a matter of time before we have to guzzle up again. So why would the one-day boycott motivate them to lower prices?
Oil companies don't lose the revenue on these "don't fill up" days. It's just delayed for a day or two, and they seem to be able to ride that out.
Losing revenue is the only language corporations speak or respond to. So what might work is a "Don't Drive Week."
Imagine a week when we all stayed off the roads. (Should I add some !!!!!!s here?)
.....A week when the fillings-up simply stopped.
.....A week when we would make the sacrifice we really need to make to get the attention of both the oil corporations and governments.
And then maybe make it a week every month. And then maybe…..
We don't need designated days when we stop filling up. We need periods when we stop driving altogether. When we simply stop consuming the over-priced petrol. And it needs to be long enough that it has an impact on their cash-flow and their just-in-time inventory process. So their tanker farms start backing up, and the ships are sitting in harbours, full of product.
One day they can manage. But seven?
That would send a meaningful message. It would also help us rehearse how we absolutely have to lower our consumption of petroleum products and find other ways of getting there.
"DO NOT BUY GAS ON [...fill in the date...]!!!!"
Let's think about why this is basically a waste of time and why oil company execs probably have a big belly laugh around the water cooler when they start going out.
Select any date and say "Don't Buy Gas" -- and what are people who participate going to do? Fill up a couple of days before or the day after.
Gas companies know this. They know they just have to wait out the day - and it's only a matter of time before we have to guzzle up again. So why would the one-day boycott motivate them to lower prices?
Oil companies don't lose the revenue on these "don't fill up" days. It's just delayed for a day or two, and they seem to be able to ride that out.
Losing revenue is the only language corporations speak or respond to. So what might work is a "Don't Drive Week."
Imagine a week when we all stayed off the roads. (Should I add some !!!!!!s here?)
.....A week when the fillings-up simply stopped.
.....A week when we would make the sacrifice we really need to make to get the attention of both the oil corporations and governments.
And then maybe make it a week every month. And then maybe…..
We don't need designated days when we stop filling up. We need periods when we stop driving altogether. When we simply stop consuming the over-priced petrol. And it needs to be long enough that it has an impact on their cash-flow and their just-in-time inventory process. So their tanker farms start backing up, and the ships are sitting in harbours, full of product.
One day they can manage. But seven?
That would send a meaningful message. It would also help us rehearse how we absolutely have to lower our consumption of petroleum products and find other ways of getting there.
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