Why boycotting Exxon alone won't do it either

[jmowreader]

Or any of the other gas producers, for that matter.

There's a bunch of threads on DU about this so-called "gas-out" that's supposed to happen 5/15. Apparently we're all supposed to not buy any gas on 5/15 and that will make the petroleum companies see the error of their ways and chop prices.

Which of course is bullshit--if you were going to buy 50 gallons of gas on 5/15 and defer your purchase to 5/16, but you drive as much on 5/15 as you would have otherwise, the petroleum companies will see no difference in total profit.

Now I'd like to address another item I saw in one of those threads: not buying any gas from Exxon. This won't work either; here's why:

When you buy gasoline, you don't actually buy it from Exxon (or whoever). You buy it from a gas station who buys it from a distributor who buys it from Exxon--or, more frequently in this day and age, the distributor buys it with no additive package from whatever refinery has the cheapest price and puts its own additive package in it.

So let's say we all decided to quit buying Exxon's gas and start buying Sinclair's instead. Well...according to Sinclair's website, they're capable of refining 140,000 barrels of oil a day, and they're selling all they make. If 40,000 barrels, say, worth of gasoline business moves from Exxon stations to Sinclair stations, two things will happen: Sinclair will need to shit 40,000 barrels of gasoline they can't make themselves (you can't just turn a big knob on the wall of an oil refinery and get more gas; trying to force refinery equipment to make more gas than it's designed to causes the refinery to blow up), and Exxon will suddenly find itself with 40,000 more barrels of gasoline than they have customers for.

Exxon will be pleased and proud to sell Sinclair all this fuel. It's done all the time.

In short: we're screwn.

[rurallib]

1. let me add that the stations are often run by franchisees

So the only one who really gets hurt is the guy who is already getting screwed over by the Big Oil companies. These poor bastards are still making the same amount per gallon they were decades ago. So Exxon don't care if you buy it at Sinclair. But the guy who runs the corner gas station does.

[Captain Angry]

2. So, what you're saying, is...

Drive less. Every day. Forever.

Sounds good to me.

:-)

[jmowreader]

16. Yeah, that's one thing you need to do

The other thing you need to do is to learn how to use your gas pedal.

Y'all are thinkin, "LEARN to use the gas pedal? You step on it and the car speeds up. You take your foot off it and the car slows down."

Yeah, and if you tromp on the gas pedal to take off and jump off it and lock up the brakes to stop, you burn more gas than you do if you gently open the throttle to go and gently ease out of it to slow down. Like the driving book says, imagine there's an egg between your foot and the pedal; drive so as to not break it.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Boycotts Are So "20th Century"

I can't recall the last successful boycott that made a company change a policy...especially one inwhich a majority of their profits are based on.

Unfortunately there are so many fires burning, so many messes to clean up, this latest round of price manipulation is going on and nothing is being done. Exxon and others are making it while they can as if the Democrats can't get the votes to override a veto to end this illegal war, there's no way there's enough votes to pass a windfall profits tax or take any action against the oil corporates.

My dream is that alternative energy becomes both profitable and ample and the Exxons, and their shortsighted greed, will be caught with nothing left.

[ecstatic]

4. defeatist much?

:shrug: If there are flaws in the plan (and I know there are plenty), let's look for solutions. If not, expect $4.50+/gallon prices soon.

[uppityperson]

6. Drive less. If you to organize a protest, have it be a "no drive" thing or some such.

I expect $4.50/gal soon anyways.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

5. 5/15 sounds more intriguing all the time.

MKJ

[gravity]

7. Boycotting Exxon is like a crackhead boycotting their dealer

The problem is that we are addicted to oil, and any boycott will be futile effort once we realize that we need gas to drive to the store or to work. We are the ones demanding oil, and the oil companies are just giving us what we want.

[demosincebirth]

10. Its worth a try, anyway. A one day boycott is bound to affect some thing.

[uppityperson]

11. Why is it bound to affect some thing?

[demosincebirth]

12. Any action, there is alway a reaction.

[gravity]

13. Like Exxon raising the price of gas on the 16th

To take advantage of all those who haven't bought any on the 15th.

If you really want to hurt the gas companies, drive less.

[uppityperson]

14. I think we should all eat pickles outside our local gas stations.

They would be confused and come out and ask why we were eating pickles en masse and we could then tell them that we are eating pickles to bring attention to the fact that gas prices are going up.

[demosincebirth]

19. We'll see.

[jmowreader]

17. It's bound to affect the gas station making sales plan that day

Affect the amount of gas used? Naah.

Remember: you pay the gas station attendant three dollars for a gallon of gas, and after all is said and done the station keeps five cents of it.

The day you buy gas doesn't matter. The amount of gas you buy does.

[Catch22Dem]

8. These come up every 6 months or so

Never gets anywhere. The logic is totally flawed. If you drive that day, you buy your gas on a different day. You still consumed the same amount of gasoline, and you still made the exact same gasoline purchase. It has about as much credibility as any other e-mail chain letter. Hey, I heard Bill Gates is going to give us all $100 on 5/15 too.

[dkf]

9. Screw Exxon - buy a Prius

or some other gas sipping car.

[Selatius]

15. Why not simply nationalize Exxon-Mobil and remove the profit margin altogether?

I mean, yeah, individual gas stations would still buy from Oil Company USA. We're not talking about taking away mom and pop gas stations; we're talking about nationalizing mega-wholesalers of oil in the US.

[jmowreader]

18. Well...there's one minor sticking point there...

and that's the overabundance of oilmen in the current maladministration.

I would personally prefer to nationalize the Defense Industry than I would the oil companies. Can anyone here really think of a reason why a company that makes things only for the military shouldn't belong to the military? Now...we do this in some cases--witness the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, New York. They make artillery parts, specifically cannon tubes and their related components. A cannon barrel has to be made with very special equipment because it's made from one piece of steel--they have a metal lathe that can turn a piece 74 inches in diameter by 74 feet long. No civilian contractor is going to touch something like that because howitzers are not a high-demand item, so the government makes them. Why can't they make tanks too? Why not military vehicles?

[IanBean]

20. Because someone owns them

XOM is up .27 :)