huh?

I was just forwarded this email. My opinion is after....

"GAS WAR - an idea that WILL workThis was originally sent by a retired Coca Colaexecutive It came from one of his engineer buddieswho retired from Halliburton. It's worth yourconsideration.Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going tohit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it mightgo higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? Weneed to take some intelligent, united action.Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makesMUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certainday" campaign that was going around last April or May!The oil companies just laughed at that because theyknew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves byrefusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenienceto us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoeverthought of this idea, has come up with a plan that canreally work. Please read on and join with us!By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced atabout $1.50 is
super cheap. Me too! It is currently$2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that theoil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned usto think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at$1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action toteach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..notsellers. With the price of gasoline going up more eachday, we consumers need to take action. The only way weare going to see the price of gas come down is if wehit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing theirgas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.How?Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stopbuying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices ifwe all act together to force a price war.Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'Tpurchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies(which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are notselling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce theirprices. If they reduce their prices, the othercompanies will have to follow suit. But to have animpact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxonand Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now,don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading andI'll explain how simple it is to reach millions ofpeople!!I am sending this note to over 30 people. If each of ussend it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... andthose 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reachesthe sixth group of people, we will have reached overTHREE MILLION consumers.If those three million get excited and pass this on toten friends each, then 30 million people will havebeen contacted! If it goes on e level further, youguessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people.That's all!(If you don't understand
how we can reach 300 millionand all you have to do is send this to 10 people....Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician.But I am . so trust me on this one.) :-)How long would all that take? If each of us sendsthis e-mail out to ten more people within one day ofreceipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably becontacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet youdidn't think you and I had that much potential, didyou! Acting together we can make a difference.If this makes sense to you, please pass this messageon. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTILTHEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEPTHEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK."


In all sincerity, I don't think that lowering the price of gasoline is the issue that we should be concerned with. The increasing price of gasoline is still just an INCONVENIENCE to us spoiled US citizens. Lowering the price of gas does nothing to encourage folks to quit driving huge ass gas guzzling vehicles. It does nothing to make our government do something about providing mass transit. It does nothing to instigate ride sharing nor the use of fuel efficient vehicles. Lowering gas prices will merely make it easier for us to more quickly deplete the already limited supply of fossil fuels. I mean, wtf. At the going rate, there will be NO oil left by the time I'm 80 years old. Hmmm. That's only 40 years away. Only. My kids will be 58, 48, 43, 42. I will probably have grandkids. maybe great grandkids. And there will be no oil left to get around.

I think the real issue at hand is to demand of our lawmakers to do something about MAKING car companies to design and sell at reasonable prices more hybrid cars. NOW not 30 years from now. And to impose limits on the fuel efficiency of future cars. I mean, other countries have done so. People don't all drive V8s or even 6 cylindars. Cars in Europe MUST get higher gas mileage than ours do (I see more and more wasteful vehicles on the road here...c'mon, is a hummer really necessary for urban driving? Or even a pathfinder or jeep? Status symbols all. 12 mpg sounds more like contributing to the problem not helping). There is a congestion tax for people who choose to actually drive in London that I thought would be a novel idea here, albeit probably wouldn't fly. But sensible anyway.

Personally, I will not participate in this type of "protest". I will continue to be a conscientious consumer & drive less, drive smaller, shop for hybrids, utilize mass transit. And every day I thank god that my dad no longer has to deal with the idiocy of gas companies & people's presumptions of how gas prices are figured.