Americans Wage E-War on Big Oil Over Fuel Costs

[wookie294]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some Americans have joined an e-mail war on Big Oil to protest record high gasoline prices, calling for a long-term boycott of the nation's leading fuel retailer Exxon Mobil.

The move is a variation of Web-based protests against painful pump prices last year that asked motorists to avoid buying fuel on a certain day, and analysts said this one could have a similar effect at the pumps: unnoticeable.

"For the rest of the year, don't purchase any gasoline from the two biggest companies (which are now one) Exxon and Mobil," said the e-mail, signed by "Kerry Lyle" of the University of Alabama. A call to the university revealed no one of that name in the faculty, staff, or student body.

"This makes much more sense than the 'don't buy gas on a certain day' campaign," said the e-mail, which some Americans have circulated to their acquaintances and which has landed in several chat rooms on the Web.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=4&u=/nm/20050414/bs_nm/energy_gasoline_boycott_dc

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[wookie294]

2. The Exxon boycott worked well after the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Rip-up your Exxon credit card (if you have one). Back in the late 1980s, 70,000 consumers sent Exxon their credit card in protest of the oil spill.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[wookie294]

6. All boycotts involve only small fractions of consumers

Corporate America hates getting into the headlines from thousands of angry consumers. Why not take some personal action instead of whining? It's so easy to avoid Exxon stations. Nobody's asking you to sell the farm or climb Mt. Everest.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. How about simply driving less?

These campaigns are childish and distracting from the real problem.
I remember a campaign years ago that was called "No crude - No food"
being promoted by rednecks, as a tit-for-tat solution to the oil embargo. Completely stupid.

[wookie294]

5. Nobody's suggesting we're going to save the world by boycotting

Boycotts give people a means to express their anger instead of sitting on your asshole whining or murdering a few school teachers. And it's an easy boycott to handle. Just avoid Exxon stations.

[Coastie for Truth]

8. I did my bit

I traded in my Grande Cherokee on a Corolla -- and my wife's older Corolla on a Prius.

Plus we cut our driving 30% and our electric consumption by 20%.

We have to change our "Life Style Paradigm" -- a onesie-twosie boycott is meaningless.

The one most affected by the cutback in electricity (we have electric heating and a/c) was Her Imperial Highness Sophia - who now sleeps under the comforter on the cool days, and under the a/c outlet on warm days. <>

[wookie294]

9. Same here!! But a boycott is NOT meaningless

Boycotts get media attention (like the article in this thread). It helps make people aware and guys like you remind everybody they can do more by purchasing hybrid electrics, etc. It helps make for a conversation that otherwise might not exist. Boycotts are merely ONE aspect of the anti-Oil culture. Don't demean them! BOYCOTTS ARE NOT MEANINGLESS!!

[Wright Patman]

7. It's every American's birthright

to drive as big a vehicle as far as possible each day.

That is in the GOP platform, I think.

"Conservatives" don't believe in "conservation" even though it is in their name. Actually there is nothing conservative about the GOP and its fellow travelers. They are Nazis to the (rotten) core.

[Q3JR4]

10. I started waging my "war" on big oil months ago.

I haven't driven anywhere in my car and I don't intend to. The next purchase I make will be a vehicle that runs (preferably) on diesel. I'll then fork over the $800 necessary to transform the diesel engine into one that runs on vegetable oil and really stick it to those mofos.

[Lori Price CLG]

11. Where are the Iraqi insurgents when you need them? n/t

[hector459]

12. To really make it effective people have to sacrifice and take pub trans.

or organize really effective car pools. It would only take six months of good organization to do this.

[Renew Deal]

13. Debunked by Snopes, but that doesn't stop the idiots from Reuters

from spreading it.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/gasout.htm

[Ian David]

14. Hess Gasoline is 98% Democrat!

See my prior thread:

Traveling Blue along the Democratic Underground Railroad
Topic started by IanDB1 on Apr-01-05 08:25 AM (13 replies)
Last modified by IanDB1 on Apr-01-05 03:30 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3400682

Hess, Arby's Starbuck's and Sonic: All Dem!

[magnussun]

15. We consume too much anyway

Our oil prices have always been artifically low. Now it's catching up with us. We can't continue to be the 5% who consumes 63% of the world's oil. I don't like high oil prices either, but we need to start facing facts about oil supplies and subsidize alternative energy.

[progressivebydesign]

16. What would REALLY work!

If the lame-ass "journalists" who write these articles would actually do their jobs and report the record BILLIONS in profit the oil companies make during these so-called shortage related price jumps. But that's asking too much. As long as the media is still filled with corporate whores.. then we're done. Stick a fork in us..