Who bought gas on May 15th?

[Cowboy89]

There was an online boycott of gas stations for yesterday May 15th going around on facebook, my space and many other social websites. The thinking was to protest the high price of gas because the oil companies are 'gouging' at the pumps.

While nobody wants to pay any more than they have to for anything, from my perspective gas prices make sense. My thinking is that if you had an item for sale on e-bay you would accept the highest bid right? Why are the oil companies any more evil for finding out what the market will bear? Afterall doesn't this practice find a nice balance between supply and demand?

I filled up with gas yesterday because I found this protest rather useless especially considering that many people who boycotted yesterday would just fill up today or a couple days later and make no impact considering their consumption remains steady.

[Sylvanfan]

Yeah, unless you make a consciencious effot to use less gas, what effect does it really have? Just means twice as many people will buy gas the next day. If you really want to make an impact convince people to have one driving free day a week (obvioulsy everyone can't do this, but some people could if they made the effort) type of thing where they don't drive at all, or have people do things like stop at grocery stores on their way home from work rather than going home than going to the store later type of thing.

[CaptainCrunch]

I had to drive to Edmonton and back and didn't want to become stranded over a political issue, so of course I filled up on the way back.

[Burninator]

I also didn't really understand the point of the boycott. If it's aim was to get everyone to comsume less gas, then that is fine. But I do think it's aim was to send a message to the oil companies and somehow drive gas prices down. Either way I didn't pay any attention to the boycott and my gas light came on, so I didn't really have a choice but to fill up.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Well, to those that didn't feel up yesterday, wake up to a wonderful surprise. 116

[jam26]

I filled up yesterday. I forgot about that useless campaign but now that you pointed it out, I'm glad I bought gas yesterday.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Well when the car's on E not much I can do.

I'm not buying gas on the 16th if that makes you feel any better

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeBruce

Well, to those that didn't feel up yesterday, wake up to a wonderful surprise. 116

That would pretty scandalous of the oil companies if they caught wind of the boycott and figured everyone would be filling up the next day, and just raised the prices, increasing their profits further.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Burninator

That would pretty scandalous of the oil companies if they caught wind of the boycott and figured everyone would be filling up the next day, and just raised the prices, increasing their profits further.

Would you be surprised though? The price of oil is only at $62 and yet the price of gas is higher than it was when oil was at $75. (I know, this is not the only gauge of the price of oil....it only matters when the price of oil is high).

[SeeGeeWhy]

The people who started this (bowel) movement would be better off advocating permanent lifestyle changes instead of a one-day boycott.

[ken0042]

The economic of it work only if a few things happen:

- Almost nobody buys gas that day.
- Those who boycott should make an effort to spread out their purchases.

If the day's sales get spead out for the week before and the week after; it would show up as a 7% increase in sales those days; not really more than a blip. But if for one day no gas is sold anywhere in North America; all of a sudden that single metaforic wrench is thrown into the machinary. No gas stations place orders, no refineries fill orders, and the process ripples down.

If this type of thing really had "no effect" then why did gas prices go up yesterday all over Canada and the US? Jay Leno commented on the gas boycott, and how now gas went up in LA.

[Cowperson]

You have to admit that its pretty odd - and maybe hypocritical - that we apparently all want to save the planet yet we're up in arms about gasoline prices going higher when, in fact, higher prices would actually be a factor in eventually pushing us to alter our habits more towards alternative and, hopefully, cleaner sources of energy.

Cost me $90 to fill up my V-8 Hemi Durango the other day. Still not high enough!!! Bring it on you s!!!

Cowperson

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

You have to admit that its pretty odd - and maybe hypocritical - that we apparently all want to save the planet yet we're up in arms about gasoline prices going higher when, in fact, higher prices would actually be a factor in eventually pushing us to alter our habits more towards alternative and, hopefully, cleaner sources of energy.

Cost me $90 to fill up my V-8 Hemi Durango the other day. Still not high enough!!! Bring it on you s!!!

Cowperson

I guess that raises the question - if people knew that this sudden 3 cent increase was going to energy savings/environmental causes, would people be alright with that?

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by ken0042

The economic of it work only if a few things happen:

- Almost nobody buys gas that day.
- Those who boycott should make an effort to spread out their purchases.

If the day's sales get spead out for the week before and the week after; it would show up as a 7% increase in sales those days; not really more than a blip. But if for one day no gas is sold anywhere in North America; all of a sudden that single metaforic wrench is thrown into the machinary. No gas stations place orders, no refineries fill orders, and the process ripples down.

If this type of thing really had "no effect" then why did gas prices go up yesterday all over Canada and the US? Jay Leno commented on the gas boycott, and how now gas went up in LA.

Gas price ALWAYS goes up right before May long. It's the beginning of the 'summer driving season'.

[Bobblehead]

If you look at the chart found at this website, it really makes me wonder why gas prices have jumped.

http://www.calgarygasprices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx

Click on the "Show Crude Oil Price" box and since the recent jump there hasn't been much correlation.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

I enjoy spending $1.30 per litre, so screw the boycott. Let's go for $2.00!!

[Ayrahb]

The oil companies seem to be hellbent to bring and keep European gasoline costs to Canada. I really don't believe that much can be done to change the current situation once they established their death grip on $1.00+ gas.

I am in still in the process of fixing up my old Geo Metro (3-cylinder, 993 ccm engine) and getting rid of my Jimmy ASAP. When I don't average $10/day in gas, I will be making a much bigger statement than boycotting them for a day.

Interesting facts on my car switch from the US Dep. of Energy (I know their estimates are not always too accurate):

-I would save over US $1400 in gas annually
-I would cut my greenhouse emissions in half
-I would cut my petroleum consumption by 10.8 barrels

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Gas price ALWAYS goes up right before May long. It's the beginning of the 'summer driving season'.

The price increase around May long is a reflection of a lot of things. Summer driving season is one of them increasing demand for the product. Another is the fact that what you put in your tank is different in March than what goes in around May. The refineries switch up to a summer formula in April. While this is being produced inventories of 'winter gas' are being liquidated at lower prices at the pumps during March and early April (usually) while they build up an inventory of summer gas. When the summer gas hits the stations they are no longer trying to rid themselves of inventory thus the price is automatically higher with the same demand levels.

Refineries have never been running with as high capacity as they do now in the 2000s so when the summer driving season hits there isn't enough gas available at a 80 cents a litre price. Since you've hit the wall as far as supply the price needs to go up to lessen demand. Since gas prices are fairly inelastic when talking about only a 5 cent a litre increase/decrease it actually needs to go up by 20-30 cents a litre to make any sort of a dent on demand. Yes the oil companies can still make a profit at 80 cents a litre, but then due to the demand there wouldn't be a reliable supply of gas at the pumps in the middle of July. Would you prefer 80 cent gas but waiting in multi-hour long lines or would you prefer $1.16/ litre and available when you need it?

Yes oil and gas companies are profitable now but if you look at historical refining margins, they were really low and sometimes negative in the 1980s and 1990s (ie refiners losing money to sell you gasoline at the market price). It works both ways, see the forest from the trees.

You could either take my word for it or you could demonize me as the son of lucifer because I work at an oil company and only spout out propaganda to continue lining my pockets and to stop you from saving the environment by actually making it more difficult for you to continue to pollute in high levels.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

it was $1.16/litre here before the boycott

that's right, we're ahead of the rest of the country here in Cape Breton, oh yeah!

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Refineries have never been running with as high capacity as they do now in the 2000s so when the summer driving season hits there isn't enough gas available at a 80 cents a litre price. Since you've hit the wall as far as supply the price needs to go up to lessen demand.

But does raising the prices actually decrease demand for gas that much? I don't see everyone parking their vehicles and biking everywhere. Businesses aren't about to cut down their consumption as well.