Cheap Gas !!! I heard of a proposed total boycott of Exxon/Mobil?

Question

They have the highest prices, profits, etc and if no one bought any of their gas they would have to sell it competitors at a lower price, which would drive prices down, increase supply and send a message to the speculators.

Answer 1

It'll never work.

The only way to bring the price of gas down in the long run is to boycott gas completely.

If you don't like the price of gas buy an Electric or Hydrogen powered Vehicle.

Answer 2

The executive of Exxon makes $12.5 million annually, we need to do something this has gotten ridiculous. Many boycotts have been proposed but few have been carried out.

Answer 3

This never works.  Partly, because it is hard to know where gas stations are getting their gas from.  Around here, most gas stations are smaller chains or independent businesses.  I have no idea where any of them get gasoline.

Answer 4

dont they own sunoco too?  lots of mobils in virginia have changed to sunoco now

but yeah, those are the only gas stations anywhere NEAR me, so i'm not driving 30+ miles out of my way to just get "cheap" gas.

Answer 5

No, actually it would increase demand because now the other companies are going to be swamped with more customers and their supply is going to be less because now they have to account for even more customers and it would make the price of gas go even higher.

Have fun

Answer 6

Besides the fact that such a boycott would never happen, it's not only a BAD idea, it would not have much of an effect of Exxon.

Opec and the suppliers of gasoline are all part of a collusive oligopoly. If they figured that demand grew more elastic towards Exxon's gas though stagnant on their overall elasticity of the gasoline market, then they would realize that people would also become more inelastic towards their own gas. This means that they would be able to raise prices and you would still pay the same amount of money. So the price of gas would actually rise!

And as for Exxon Mobil, they would only lose 1 day's worth of sales, which is only .29%. But as soon as they find this out, which would probably before lunch time, they would simply shut down ops for the day, and then the next day they would re-open and sell gas at the same higher price that everybody else does.

Answer 7

I still think we are sitting on an oil bubble. The head of OPEC falt out said that the reason crude prices are so high is because of speculation. Granted, if China keeps demanding more and more oil then there would be cause for limited supply (which no one has said is a problem at this point) but for all of these years they've been beating into our heads that North American consumes the most fossil fuel.

Demand is going down because of high prices, and when the lowered demand has enough of an impact this fuel 'bubble' will burst and lead to a price correction. When that will happen, I have no idea.

Answer 8

The problem with this is that only about 5% of all gas stations are corporately owned... that is 95% are independently owned by people who make pennies of the profit margin pie and most likely invested their life savings to open their store. So, you're hurting them, not big oil companies.

Read this if you want to understand who is making the profit:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8670108/

So what do we do? Well, we have to affect supply and demand in a direct effective way. Boycotting for one day will only defer the need to fill up another day. We just need to simply find other ways to slow down the demand. Hybrid cars, slowing down and stop driving like a maniac punching it a the green light and slamming on your breaks at the red one, keeping your fluids up and filters clean in your car, reducing how much gas we consume in lawn mowers, boats, etc for recreation. Good luck with this as summer commences.

Answer 9

If no one in the US bought the gas they would just sell it to China or India or one of the other emerging countries.

Also, just how long do you think you can go without gas?  A week?  A couple of days?  Most people cannot do that.  They might be able to boycott for a bit but then they come back and buy more gasoline.  In the longrun they buy the same amount.  By the way, this is the demand part of the supply/demand equation that results in high gas prices.

As for the executive making $12.5 million.  That is nothing.  Ok, lets say that we tell that executive he cannot make that anymore.  In fact, make him pay $12.5 million a year.  Now lets apply that to the prices.  US gas consumption is 320,500,000 gallons a day.  That comes to 116,982,500,000 gallons a year.  Divide that into the $25 million and you get a savings of $0.0002 per gallon.

The executive making $12.5 million is not raising the price of gas.

Answer 10

i dont know about that but i do know the government is going to put less oil into their reserves which should drop prices slightly. plus the natural gas basin found from PA to WV should bring down prices as well.