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The Great American Gas Boycott: Part Two
Category: Automotive
The Great American Gas Boycott: Part Two
Declaring Our Independence From Foreign & Domestic Oil
One of the reasons the original gas boycott was ineffective was it lasted only a single day. Gas prices dropped 30 cents that day. But we weren't organized in our plan of attack. This is a different kind of boycott that will not fade after a single day. This is a call to change our way of life. This is a call to arms and a call to war.
Moreover, everyone will be able to participate, even those that like to buy gas. Because unlike that failed boycott, this is about declaring our independence from foreign and domestic oil, once and for all.
Phase One – Boycotting Exxon
The first phase is a boycott. But this boycott does not target all gas stations. So which one should we go after? Originally I intended to flip a coin. But instead, I figured it was better to target one with a purpose. So, which one? Let's go after the one that inspired the headlines, "Record profits recorded by oil companies," by choosing the single company that had the highest profits margins of all ime and screwed us over the worst.
A little research suggests of the four major oil companies, we should target Exxon Mobile for creating the largest profit margin of any company in US history. Exxon recorded a profit of 35 billion up nine percent from last year. Its revenue exceeds the GPN of all but about 25 industrialized countries. This is the second year that their profits have soared. And if you go back three years Exxon's profits are almost up fifty percent, while its commitment to R&D and alternate fuels has almost been cut in half.
I don't care if Congress doesn't see anything illegal. At the very least, I personally can vow never to buy another Exxon product ever again.
What will this do? It will send other oil companies. And while we can't inflict economic pain on every gas company in the US, we can inflict a hell of a lot of economic pain on one. Unlike the gas out of March 15th, 2004, we can all afford to boycott Exxon for a very long time. This is not a boycott intended to send this gas station into a new philosophy on life. This is a boycott to send it into bankruptcy. Don't worry. There will be plenty of other companies to take up the slack. We can't all say, "no more gas." Most of us have jobs. And nobody will drive to our house to pick us up and take us there. However, we could easily say, Exxon screwed us over the worst. So let's send a message to the other gas companies, screw us over like this and we will fight back.
And in doing so we're letting the company with the second biggest profit margin know that they're next.
Phase Two – Collateral Damage
You can't boycott every trip to Arco. You might actually have to buy gas, and traditionally Arco has always been the cheapest. However, we can easily boycott every corn dog, hamburger and unrelated product that they sell. Think of it this way, Gas companies would have to justify their profits by selling gas. Let's take the other variables out of the equation.
I know some 7-11s sell gas. Do you really need a Slurpee at that 7-11, if they do? Force those companies who sell both to pick and choose how they're going to cover the expense of doing business in your state. We can do a lot of collateral damage to the oil companies by boycotting every single thing in their inventory that is not related to gas.
You can also buy tires from tire companies, instead of Exxon. Avoid using car repair service stations housed in gas stations. Use smog check stations that aren't parts of gas stations either. There are literally a million things that you can not buy to bring big oil's profit margins down that have nothing to do with buying gas at all. And we can all boycott these things for a very long time.
Phase Three: Economize
I replaced all my incandescent light bulbs with florescent bulbs a while back. I was trying to save money, not the country. But the truth is the best way to attack the oil companies is to attack them on fronts they aren't expecting it from. It takes oil to turn the generators that create your electricity. So this begs the question, how can we make those generators turn a little less?
When I bought my apartment building I made sure we installed insulation. As a result unit B is the warmest unit all year, and it stays the coolest when the air is on. My tenants in A have insulated their water heater. You can do this and bring that electric or gas bill way down. Remember heat and cool air are two of the biggest expenses you'll have if you don't own a pool. Think how much the demand for oil would drop in a single day if everyone in the United States went out and simply bought insulation to put around their water heater over night. If the demand for electricity dropped in everyone's home, all at the same time, I can almost guarantee you that the price of oil would be affected two.
Here are some other things you can do to bring down the price of electricity in your home.
· Insulate the water pipes
· Replace furnace filters
· Insulate the ceiling and or the attic
· Make sure the windows are sealed: caulking is not as complicated as you'd think
· Use washers and dryers during the morning hours
· Install an automatic thermostat to heat and cool according to your schedule
· During summer months open the drapes to make use of the suns natural light
· During winter close them to further insulate the house
· Install compact florescent bulbs
· Use fans to make the heat from heaters and air conditioners circulate throughout the house. You do this by putting the fan on reverse and positioning it away from the source of heat or cold. The fan then sucks the warm or cool air in that direction.
· Look for the Energy Star seal
This list could go on forever. My point here is every time one person does one thing on this list, it's only partly about that person. If everyone in the US did the first three the reduction in energy demand would be dramatic. That would take a huge bite out of big oil's profit margin without attacking the oil companies at the pump. Because the demand for crude oil would come down, big oil's profit margin would come way down with it.
Phase Four: Attacking Politicians Who Refuse To Act
Are you considering voting for McCain? First, I'm not a liberal or a conservative. It really depends what issue we're talking about. I also grew up in Arizona, so I really want to like McCain. But the comment, we'll stay in Iraq 100 years if it takes that long, should scare anyone away. Since we invaded Iraq the price of Oil has risen from a little over a dollar a gallon to four. You don't think the Middle East is using our dependency on oil to manipulate us? I'm pretty sure they are. And any candidate who says this problem is beyond our control will never get my vote. "We can't do anything about this," simply should not be an acceptable answer.
I want Senators, Congressman and presidential candidates who will at the very least, audit big oil and ease my mind that they're not violating the Sherman Anti Trust law. Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna said on April 17th, that he didn't find any illegal activity regarding the price of oil from 2007 until 2008. Yet the Federal Government can find a reason to penalize Bill Gates more money than most of us will ever see in our life time because he packaged Windows with Internet Explorer. That invented a monopoly.
Internet Explorer is more popular because Netscape sucks. Sorry to inform any of you worthless politicians that are getting kickbacks from Netscape and AOL.
Let me propose a few laws that would ease my mind that any corruption is taking place in the decision making, out there in Washington D.C. First off, every Senator should have to publish how much money he receives from related entities during a vote that affects that entity. For instance, if you received most of your campaign contributions from Exxon, you should have to disclose that on CPAN during any vote that might affect Exxon, while that vote is taking place. A lot of corrupt congressman would lose their seats. If, on the other hand you're an appointed official, like an Attorney General, the same thing should be disclosed about the person who put you there.
Additionally there should be an equal tax break for every individual who installs any energy saving product and can produce a receipt, the amount of that deduction should be equal to the amount of the receipt. You want to make America energy conscious, give them the same incentives you would give them if they formed a dummy corporation and did the things you've been giving corporate america tax breaks for, for the last ten years. That probably would have stopped this problem from ever taking place.
There should also be a huge tax break for anyone who owns a car that gets more that 35 MPG should get an even bigger tax break on top of it, not just everyone who owns a hybrid car. In fact, institute even a minor break, and all the big oil companies will really start to feel our pain as the demand for their product fell further and further each and every April 15th.
Phase Five: Support Research And Development
On the way to work, I usually listen to Coast 103.5. I like adult contemporary more than the current R&B hits. Anyhow, the DJs are Mark and Kim. Mark recently traded his SUV in for a Prius. That didn't impress me as much as his reason for doing it. Mark traded in his SUV, but his reason had nothing to do with the gas mileage. He wanted his hard earned money to go to the automobile manufacturers that are trying to create more efficient cars.
Now before you buy a Prius, let me tell you the downside. It's harder to find parts. Their more expensive in the beginning. And because of the high voltage associated with the battery, there's a real danger of getting electrocuted in an accident.
However, think of Mark's point. With the price of gas: it averages out. And the oil companies are already electrocuting us, as it is. Very little has changed except that Mark sent his hard earned money to Detroit to help car manufactures work out some R & D related to alternative fuels and eletric cars. We should all be supporting some type of R & D when it comes to alternate fuels. We should be looking into trying solar. We should be inquiring about vegetable oil and asking questions about who killed the Hydrogen Car. Maybe one person couldn't make a huge difference, but if we all started asking these questions and sending a little of our hard earned cash in some manner to companies focused on R&D, guess where our money ultimately would not go.
That answer is Big Oil.
Phase Six: Increase Your MPG
Back when I became a landlord my dad got me a Ford Explorer. I'm twice cursed because it has four wheel drive. That also reduces your MPG to less than 20. However, because it was from my dad, after suffering a stroke and a heart attack; and from the guy who made sure I wasn't homeless after the contractor left me high and dry while teaching me to install drywall, refinish hardwood floors and build new kitchen cabinets from scratch, I'd feel like a traitor to turn it in, so I understand why not everyone can take this step yet.
But it should be in all our future plans. Our biggest decision and first question when it comes to our next new car should simply be, "What's the MPG." And no matter how the car salesman answers we should respond, "Can you do any better than that?"
If that was the first question that everyone asked, car manufacturers would have to deal with it very quickly and more seriously. I know some people say, "I don't want to drive a Prius." My Saturn SL1 got well over 35 MPG on the highway. The Prius gets about 55 mpg. Most hybrids don't do much better than a good Honda. My point is that if you look hard enough you can find something that fits your needs that will significantly reduce how often we fill up. If you want a place to start, go to this table. It was the best I could find for a simple MPG comparison. And top models start in the 78 MPG range.
Remember, not every car with the best MPG ratings is a hybrid. You can do very well for yourself and buy a traditional car.
Phase Seven: Collateral Boycotts
In case you don't understand how big business works, McDonalds was never about hamburgers. It's about building a huge food chain that buys up all the most expensive real estate in the world and sells it at a huge mark up a few years down the line. Right now, we should be boycotting everything that Exxon is trying to use our money to buy. To understand more about Exxon Mobile go here.
Weather you realize this or not, big oil has declared war on American Consumers. And it's time that we declared war back. That means it's not enough to Boycott Exxon. We need to boycott anything remotely related to big oil.
At the very least we should be familiar with all three brands of Exxon fuel. Exxon, Essos and Mobile. Any time you see that you're putting money back in the hands of the gas company that stuck it to you the worst. You can get a further breakdown of Exxon products here, at the company's own website. I looked really hard to find out what Exxon was doing with our money, outside of making gas. It seems, one thing high on the list is buying back its own stocks.
I'm still trying to find out where the rest of our money went. A good portion of it probably went to buying out Washington; that's probably why I'm finding it so hard to trace. But since this blog is a work, in progress, come back soon and I promise I will have a list.
Phase Eight: Monitoring Our Progress
What everyone needs to understand is that a one day boycott can't change things. A complete overhaul in our way of life is the only thing that will stop this madness. And it will probably take at least the next four years of doing all these things before you see alternate energy start to seriously compete with big oil as they try to price themselves out of the market all together. You can't half-ass any war. That's why we're losing in Iraq. That's why we lost in Vietnam. You have to make a commitment. This is what I believe in, and this is what I intend to stand up for it until the end.
Now these are things we can change. We can monitor the average MPG of cars, as the averages increase year by year. We can watch as Southern California Edison never declares another rolling blackout because Los Angeles became too energy efficient over night. We can publish the names of Attorney Generals who say if we think anyone's fixing prices they must be out of their mind. We can publish the names of the idiot that appointed them to that office and how much big oil is responsible for putting them there. And we can also live the following eight steps to try to bring us back to a point where it wasn't more expensive to fill up our tank than to buy a new car.
In the end if we
1. Target one company: specifically Exxon for the reasons I already said
2. Boycott everything at gas stations that are not gas
3. Make our homes as energy efficient as possible
4. Vote out any politician that refuses to admit that something must be done
5. Support research & development
6. Increase our MPG the very next time we purchase a car
7. Boycott everywhere that Exxon tries to put their money
8. And monitor how these actions change the price of crude and gas on a daily basis
You will see a change. It will not be over night. But it will happen. And we'll all be better off in the end. Unless of course you're an Exxon employee, if that's the case, I would highly suggest looking for another job.
11:35 AM
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