[NeoPeasant]

I got one of those chain email letters (for the hundredth time) with a scheme to lower gas prices (and punish Saudi Arabia) by boycotting gasoline companies selling Saudi oil based product and buying from everyone else.

THIS TIME I DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I forwarded the following to every email address that was in the original letter. (probably a couple hundred)

Am I wasting my time? Would you do something similar? If so you are welcome to copy and paste my letter.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')reetings everyone,
Recently my niece sent me, and all of you a forwarded email that
contains a scheme to boycott certain gasoline sellers in favor of others
in the hopes this would reduce fuel prices. I'm sure she meant well, but
I'm sure most of you realize it would be a futile effort. The "approved"
companies would quickly run out of gas and buy more from the only ones
that had any left-the boycotted companies. The prices wouldn't change.

I think it is important that everyone should have a deeper understanding
of what is really happening in the oil industry. What is happening is
that worldwide oil production is losing it's ability to grow its rate of
output due to the cold, hard facts of geology and resource depletion. We
are reaching a point where the production of oil will remain flat for
some time, and then begin to slowly and irreversibly decline. No amount
of investment or application of new technology has a real chance of
stopping this trend.

This phenomenon is referred to as "Peak Oil". Peak Oil is perhaps by
far the most important thing that most of you have never heard about.
Peak Oil will have far more profound effects on our future than most of
you can imagine. The reason I am writing this is because I want to
encourage everyone to educate themselves about Peak Oil.

I recommend you visit some of the following sites:

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
http://www.peakoil.com
http://www.theoildrum.com
http://www.peakoil.org
http://www.energybulletin.net

or simply do a google search for "Peak Oil"

If you have Netflix, I recommend you rent the documentary "End Of
Suburbia"

Some of the things you learn may be difficult to accept. But when you
understand the reality of our energy situation, you will be much better
equipped to prepare for the future well being of yourselves and your
families.

Best Wishes,
(me)

[Raxozanne]

I think its a good gesture.
Who knows someone might actually look up peak oil.
I might do the same (hijack an email) if I had the time.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', 'A')m I wasting my time?

[Specop_007]

DEAR GOD!! We're running out of oil?!

Specop runs out to buy another gas can full of gas.

[I_Like_Plants]

Haha funny!! Sometimes I get phone interviewers, and I start interviewing THEM ....

[deconstructionist]

our very own Tyler_JC copied this and replied to a bullten post of the same chain letter on myspace. combatting the misinformation campaigns is important work...

[Barbara]

OH NO!

You're giving them the definitive proof PO is a conspiracy theory made by oil corporations!

[oil_watcher_ed]

I watched the CBC program "Denial Machine"
(http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/denialmachine/index.html) which was presented
on The Fifth Estate telvision program just last week. I learned that a
very important player in the denial/disinformation campaign was Exxon
and that Esso, a subsidiary, is following suite in Canada. They funded
much of the campaign. This denial campaign is a very dangerous
deception that is preventing people from understanding the truth of
global warming and acting.

Please join me by boycotting Exxon/Esso at the pumps if you are still
driving vehicles or Esso as the heating oil supplier, if this is
practical. Please relay this message to your friends who have a
concern for the environment. We can all work together to put an end to
the global denial nonsense -- the deception and evil.

Edward Ing
Mississauga, Ontario

(P.S. If your really want to be incensed by immoral practices please
find a way to watch the program. You will be witnessing a
manifestation of the pure, modern day evil -- it horrors me what kind
of lies and misinformation ruthless wealth can spread. If you are American you will likely not be able to watch this program.)

[gego]

Please do boycott all the oil companies. The rest of us would like to use your share.

[Aaron]

http://www.peakoil.com/contentid-15.html

[oil_watcher_ed]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gego', 'P')lease do boycott all the oil companies. The rest of us would like to use your share.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oil_watcher_ed', '
')No, punish the most intrasigent and the rest will learn a lesson. It is impractical to boycott all.

[Dreamtwister]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oil_watcher_ed', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gego', 'P')lease do boycott all the oil companies. The rest of us would like to use your share.

[Chuckmak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')oil_watcher_ed
Coal
Coal
Joined: Nov 20, 2006
Posts: 2

[oil_watcher_ed]

I disagree, you don't have to go for bankrupt. You just have to go and get a notice drop in sales.

For instance if there is a gas station where there is Exxon/Esso with another company's gas station beside it and the prices are the same, go next door. The cumulative effect if many were to do this is a noticeable drop in sales.

It will not create instability in the market, the lost sales will go to other companies-- they will buy Exxon share of the market. The aim is to make a noticeable dent in ExxonMobil/Exxon's revenue to protest the disinformation anti-market tactics.

Sure, punish the shareholders too, then in the future they will think twice about investing in companies who have objectives that aim to spread lies. The shareholders will get the notices that there is a risk of future lawsuites against Exxon -- for instance, the city of New York and the property owners who have their property submerged in the fture.

[quote]
Are you punishing the shareholders? They will just take the sweet buyout offers when BP or one of the others comes along to buy up all of Exxon's assets.
/quote]

[Dreamtwister]

Look, you are new around here, and your intentions appear to be honourable, so I'll be patient.

You clearly have no grasp of the "big picture". Oil (and gasoline) is right now a seller's market. If you don't buy Exxon's products, your neighbor will. If nobody in the United States buys Exxon's products, China will be only too happy to buy it instead.

The oil companies have spent over a century and billions of dollars making sure you *can't* just stop buying their products.

I also think you underestimate the scope of the collusion between the oil majors and the government. People think the oil companies are competitors, but that's not how cartels work. They are partners.

If you boycott a single gas station, the law of large numbers protects the company.

If you boycott an entire town, the oil companies have to suspend or terminate transport contracts and the teamsters go on strike in retaliation.

If you boycott an entire company, there's a "pipeline leak" or some other manufactured crisis and your entire state runs out of gas.

And if you begin impacting sales to an entire company or the entire industry, the government steps in and buys the surplus.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see people wanting to do something, but a boycott won't work. Especially when you are trying to boycott the very commodity upon which the entire economy is based.

How many industries have the United States Armed Forces as a personal security force? Just one. That should tell you something.