When I recently saw the price of Diesel fuel skyrocketing, I did my due diligence and learned both the very small actual added cost of the new low sulphur diesel, and then saw the figures on how much diesel fuel US refineries ship to Europe, I became angry. I?ve wanted a TDI vehicle for years. I rent them in Europe on every trip. They are clean, quiet, and truly gas sippers.
But, I?m now angry at the US oil companies for playing games on fuel pricing before the expected onslaught of TDI vehicles to be delivered.
It made me think. We as citizens have lost the control to monitor and punish bad corporate behavior. Yes, for one day, we can all stop buying gas, but that accomplishes nothing. With oil companies making record profits, these oil companies should be spending record amounts trying to increase supply. They are not from what I read in their corporate reports (at least a number of them).
Ok, after talking to a number of people, I?ve got a solution. We find the oil company with the worst anti-consumer behavior. We as a nation, continent, or concerned group of citizens, decide and pick who that oil company is. We then vow to boycott them. We can explain our motives and I guarantee the other oil companies will start listening to us as citizens again. Shame on powers that be in government, powers that are supposed to protect us as citizens, not help companies find ways to get more money from us as consumers also.
I don?t know who the worst offender is. Can somebody start a website that we can vote on who to boycott???
The best way to boycott these nasty oil compnies is to stop driving. If the same oil company supplies natural gas or heating oil to your house, switch to an electric heat pump, solar or wood.
I lived next to a Mennonite community for years and these people had no use for oil companies, and used horses for transportation. They even made their own candles from animal fat!
Just met a Swiss couple in the mountains who flew over to tour the Rocky Mountains and the US in a big motorhome. To them the price of gas was no problem, since they paid at least twice as much at home. Most of the gas price in Europe is government tax, not evil oil compny profit!
I’m not suggesting boycotting them all. We all need to drive. Yes, I’d like to go back to the days of horses and buggies as I don’t need the stress of driving in traffic, wondering how to pay for all the gasoline I use, etc. etc… I AM SUGGESTING BOYCOTTING ONE OIL COMPANY. The one with the worst anti-consumer behavor. I think this will get everyones attention and put the power back where it belongs, in our hands.
The only place I have ever seen something like this work was in Australia. Nearly all workers are unionized there, and one supermarket was giving particularly bad service, not focusing on sanitation, etc.
The union congress, and their wives, decided to completely bycott this chain, and nearly brought them to their knees. Service, prices and cleanliness improved rapidly afterwards.
I personally cannot identify any US oil company that is any more or less evil than any other. I can identify many foreign ones that don’t do business here.
Boycotting a single oil company won’t do squat to the price of gasoline. As long as marketwide demand continues to increase, so will fuel prices. Your whole premise that oil companies set fuel prices is the main problem. Prices are set by market forces, which won’t change unless demand goes down across the whole global market.
I didn’t say evil. I said anti-consumer behavoir. Raising prices beyond necessity. They are making record profits and re-investing very little of it. They push for ethanol, but producing corn oil to add to Diesel might be the way to go instead. The price of corn oil is less than the price of diesel fuel in some places. Let’s agree to vote. We all have our own criteria. If we could vote on the web somewhere and decide who deserves to be punished finally it would be a step in the right direction. I don’t think oil companies are evil. I think some have a great deal of greed. Too much greed. And greed should not be rewarded.
I’m not talking about the price of gasoline. I’m talking about making industry answer to citizens when they mis-behave. The oil companies have made record profits, and not re-invested responsibly, and speculators in the commodity markets have driven up the price as much as anyone. It’s not all demand side economics.
Nothing isgoing to happen to the oil companys untill we show which congreesman and senators are getting pay off by big oil. also look at the votes they get to help them they are republic votes.
Can you understand this is a Car Talk Forum?
Take some action. Identify which oil company is paying off the most politicians if you believe that is the main issue. Convince others to vote to boycott the worst offender. We have the ability to take the power back into our own hands. But we must act on it. There are many ways to solve a problem. Let us agree to take positive action and bring the worst behaved oil company to it’s knees by boycotting them. Thanks for the input, I hadn’t even thought about political contributing as bad behavoir but you are very right. Let’s identify the bad behavoir, educate the citizens and then act as responsible adults instead of whining children.
Last time I checked most cars run on gasoline fuel.
If we could vote on the web somewhere and decide who deserves to be punished…
Before you punish, you must first assign blame, and I believe we can all share in the blame. For years, fuel was cheap, yet as a country we consume more energy per person than any other country. We also re-elect the same representatives to Congress in spite of the fact that they take bribes from oil companies and don’t serve our interests.
I don’t think anyone so far has agreed with your idea of a solution and you don’t seem receptive to new ideas. You might be better off just letting this half-baked idea go.
As long as the USA has the cheapest gas in the developed world, about half the cost of other countries, and the gas is good quality, the pumps not dangerous,the toilets clean, it’s hard to prove misbehavior!
I personally boycott a number of businesses; Starbuck’s for selling coffee at exhorbitant prices, while paying the peole who grow the stuff next to nothing, for instance. I buy top qualility FAIR TRADED beans, grind my own and make a cup of coffee for 8.5 Cents, including real cream!
I boycott all makers of bottled water, manufacturers of flimsy items, all sellers of over-packaged foods, the US Post Office for parcel service (high price, slow service, long delivery times), most soft drink manufacturers, and so forth.
When Ralph Nader went on a car safety crusade, he, even though he was a lawyer, could identify deliberate design shortcuts and flaws that made these cars unsafe, and would cost very little to correct. At that time, GM had 50% of the car market and had simply gone to sleep (did not give a damn). Others followed in its footsteps.
A boycott would not have made sense, since everyone made lousy cars, but high profile congressional hearing were very efffective and have resulted in much safer cars. The only car compamy to ever voluntarily improve safety was Volvo who pioneered many safety items.
This strategy cannot possibly work with a fungible commodity like oil. First of all, the gas you buy at the local Brand X station very likely didn’t come from Brand X’s refinery. Second, the Brand X corporation can always find someone else to buy their products at the going market price. So, now when you buy gas at the Brand Y station, you’re may actually be buying gas that came from Brand X’s refinery.
The only effect of boycotting one brand of gas or diesel is hurting the local station owners and their employees.
You sound like an local station owner who doesn’t honor his contract with his supplier. I have owned gas stations. Brand X stations that had to buy gas from Brand X, no choice and if they caught me doing as you’d suggest is often the case, I would have been out of business, which I eventually bored of and sold off. Too bad for the local station owners that bought franchises from the worst behavoir offenders. Personally, my candidate for boycotting, has the greediest station owners that raise gas prices every single Friday and lower them on Monday. Everyone who drives oil based automobiles are hurting. It’s time to stop the hurting and get on with the curing. If a few greedy owners take a hit, too bad…my heart goes out to the many, not the few.
You sound like an local station owner who doesn’t honor his contract with his supplier.
No, NYBo sounds like a respected member of this forum who knows what he is talking about, contrary to you…on both counts. If you could accept and respond to new ideas, that would be a positive change.
I have never owned a station, and the last time worked in one was 1982. Things have changed a lot since then. Just follow a tanker around. It will stop at stations of different brands making deliveries.
One way to help is to buy the cheapest gas that meets your standards. Look at gasbuddy.com
put in your zip code and find the best deal. Also, you can post to this as a visitor, you don’t have to register. It helps me.
You follow tankers around on a regular basis? Really? You are the person wasting all the gas!!!
Granted, I’ve noticed your postings are quite prolific and you seem knowledgeable. I’m beginning to realize why most Europeans are driving fuel sipping TDI vehicles (and have a strong dollar) and us Americans are driving gas guzzlers and our dollar is in the toilet. We can’t change our thinking or think out of the box, or try anything without a lot of unnecessary criticism and naysayers. Obviously I’ve got a few oil company lovers out there who refuse to even question what is going on.
Never mind, I’ll find a group that gives a damm.
And by the way, the reason it appears that tanker deliverys are all being done by the same company is that 1.) Many refiners have outsourced delivery and 2.) Company emblems have come off of company delivery trucks as when they are involved in accidents, the negative publicity is enough (depending on when and where) to make a stock price plummet for a day. I can assure you that branded stations are buying branded gas. To suggest otherwise is out and out ignorance.