<p>Has anyone heard about the gas strike for may 2nd? As in: Do not buy any gas on Friday! If so, will you participate? Do you really think this will hurt the oil companies? Do any of you have any answers to why it keeps rising? I don’t know about everyone else, but it’s killing us. We have a company van that carries supplies, (husbands) I drive a truck (also for supplies) and my two sons share our small toyota. We live out in rural aggi land and our gas bill is at least $800.00 a month! Believe me, we try every day to ‘cut back’. I guess it’s time for me to put my fears away and allow my kids to get motorcycles to drive on Semi-ridden Hwy 99. 
Heck, I guess I’ll even get one! (after I buy some stock in Honda)</p>
<p>Does this mean we are supposed to not have any gas tomorrow?? I’ll do my best . I’ll stay away from spicy food :D</p>
<p>^Thats funny!</p>
<p>Gas strike - meaning do not buy any gas tomorrow?</p>
<p>^yes, DO NOT buy any gas tomorrow.</p>
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Not in the least - any people striking (which would be minimal anyway) will just buy the same gas before or after. The net gas sold is the same. </p>
<p>The only thing that could have an effect would be to drive less and thereby use less fuel but it’d have to be done on a massive scale and for more than one day to have any effect.</p>
<p>Do you really think this will hurt the oil companies?</p>
<p>What it will do is make the oil companies chuckle at such silliness. This is so silly.</p>
<p>I agree with UCdad–drive less. Reduced demand reduces prices. And it’s better for the environment, too.</p>
<p>Those who know economics better than me say that prices are high because supplies aren’t meeting demand, and because of the weak dollar. </p>
<p>And cutting the federal gas tax for the summer is like shuttling our money from the gov to foreign countries.
[Dumb</a> as We Wanna Be - New York Times](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30friedman.html?em&ex=1209787200&en=c74689f177717558&ei=5087
]Dumb”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/opinion/30friedman.html?em&ex=1209787200&en=c74689f177717558&ei=5087
)</p>
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<p>It won’t do anything. You should complain to your government representatives. If you noticed congress in examining food prices has figured out Ethanol is a huge part of the problem. I had and said this on other threads earlier. Farmers are getting 3 times the price for Ethanal, as a result everything that corn is used for has increased in price: e.g., feed, so chickens, beef etc are costing more, corn syrup as a surgar sub is up, and the list goes on. More fields are converted to corn, and so wheat prices have risen 75%. Basically, Ethanol results in a transfer tax. We are now driving (literally) our food prices up. If you are in states where there are primaries to go and can ask questions, raise this issue. Any idiot knew this would be the outcome, except Bush and the rest of our government officials. But now that congress has discovered it, you can be sure nothing will happen until 2020 or later, like real fuel economy requirements for cars and trucks.</p>
<p>How about transit commute/bike to work day? This would work much better, especially if repeated weekly…</p>
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<p>Drive slower. That too will use less gasoline. But that would mean people would have to get up 5 minutes earlier so they don’t have to speed to work.</p>
<p>Here’s the other deal with gas prices I’m sure many of you have noticed - </p>
<p>I frequently gas-up at a location with two gas stations right next to each other (Shell and Chevron). They’re both similar in that they’re major oil companies (as opposed to no-name gas), are large, convenient stations that always have pumps open, and are easy pay-at-the-pump types that accept any CC. However, they frequently have differing prices for gas - sometimes only a penny a gallon but sometimes as much as 10 cents a gallon. I’m surprised at how many people will just pull into the more expensive one to fill up when the one right next to it has available pumps and gas for less cost. What’s up with those people? It’s hard to imagine people really going only to a particular station with that station’s CC in this day and age when they all accept virtually any CC. Of course, with a little less convenience I’ll sometimes seek out an inconvenient, crowded gas station not on my path to get even less expensive gas but the former scenario doesn’t even require any inconvenience.</p>
<p>If everyone would just go to the less expensive station of the two I can gurantee that the more expensive one will reduce their price (or go out of business or - maybe price-fix I suppose). It’s not a huge amount of money but I’d just as soon not pay any more than needed.</p>
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I’ll go to my employers station no matter what.</p>
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For several factors, primarily due to increased crude oil costs:</p>
<ol>
<li>Speculative investors looking to make larger returns…the tech bubble turned to a housing bubble turned to a commodities bubble.</li>
<li>Depreciated dollar…more expensive for Americans to buy imported product.</li>
<li>Rising demand in China/India.</li>
<li>Geopolitical tensions with Iran/Nigeria/Venezuela.</li>
<li>Lack of refining capacity.</li>
</ol>
<p>I will say one reason why diesel prices are much higher this year than years ago is due to increased environmental regulation. The EPA in 2006 demanded low sulfur diesel with a 500 ppm maximum sulfur spec be lowered to 15 ppm maximum sulfur. Removing the sulfur greatly increased refineries processing costs…in addition, since sulfur provides lubricity to the fuel, the lack of sulfur affected the lubricity…chemicals are now added to the diesel to increase lubricity…this increases costs which are passed onto the consumer.</p>
<p>The EPA also demanded that MTBE oxygenation additive for clean air be eliminated as a fuel additive in gasoline. MTBE was demanded by the government for clean air…however, MTBE was later found to contaminate ground water…so, ethanol blends of up to 10% in gasoline is required instead…this increases corn/grain/commodities prices.</p>
<p>UCBChemEGrad: That’s interesting. Around here it’s much more common to see the exact same price at 3 stations on the same corner. (What a coincidence!) It’s collusion–they must have agreed not to engage in price wars.</p>
<p>Where do you find the cheapest gas?
Over here it is COSTCO.</p>
<p>Forget the gas strike; it’s pretty lame unless you can keep it up for a few months, and even then, YOUR gas will just go to China or India.</p>
<p>Drive less, walk to work, carpool, take a bus, don’t travel… all those would have a bigger accumulative effect than simply not buying gas one day.</p>
<p>Here the cheapest gas is at Costco and the local grocery store (with discounts based on buying groceries). The Costcos with gas stations are too far away for me though and I don’t have the patience to wait in the ever-present lines there anyway.</p>
<p>? I’ve been hearing about turning engine off at stoplights…is this working </p>
<p>for anyone? </p>
<p>Better than not buying gas on Friday: not driving Friday or over the </p>
<p>weekend. If you do have to drive, practice all your gas saving tips–</p>
<p>plan a circular route. Stay home Sat afternoon and have a Derby party!</p>
<p>cottonwood, if you have a hybrid, that happens automatically (gas engine turns off when stopped). For the rest of us, I don’t think it would make a difference, you’re not burning that much gas when you’re idling at a light.</p>
<p>Better idea - take your foot off the gas and coast when you know there’s a stop coming up ahead (trying to teach my D with her permit to do this), and don’t STOMP on the gas to start. Consumer Reports said that driving slower, not over-accellerating, coasting, etc, can save up to 20% on your gas usage.</p>
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Many years ago (> 20) while in Switzerland and riding around with a local I noticed his car had a device in it that did this. He mentioned that it was required for one reason or another. I don’t know how much of a difference it made but it was interesting nonetheless.</p>