Drivers hope to force companies to lower prices

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An e-mail circulating on the Internet calls for Americans to avoid the pumps Tuesday.

By WILLIAM HANLON

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — With gas prices near or above $3 a gallon, there's a stir in the Internet community over doing something about it.

Chances are, if you have an e-mail account, you've received the chain mail message urging a national boycott of gasoline, with the hope that this will affect the gas market and drive the price of gas down, for at least a while.

On Tuesday, according to this Internet revolution, people across the nation will plan to avoid the pumps all day. The chain message says the same stunt was attempted in April 1997, and gas prices reportedly dropped 30 cents overnight.

The goal this year is a similar, if not greater, effect.

Nancy Cuffle, a real estate agent with Re/Max Valley Real Estate, received the e-mail April 24 from a fellow real estate agent. Shortly after, she received the same forwarded e-mail from a client, noticing more and more people were passing the word.

"I thought, it can't hurt," Cuffle said, and forwarded the e-mail to others.

Cuffle is among many people who plan to participate in the gas boycott. Believing in the law of attraction, Cuffle is optimistic about the Internet bandwagon. "If you believe something enough, then it can happen," she said.

Enough people seem to believe it, as homes and offices around the nation have received some form of the e-mail from family, friends and co-workers.

Will it work?

With more than 211 million Americans on the Internet, according to www.internetworldstats.com, can a national one-day boycott of gas actually be pulled off and make a difference in gas prices? Even though many claim to be participating, there's a lot of skepticism about how this will eventually unfold.

According to one form of the e-mail, the gas boycott will cost the oil companies nearly $2.3 billion, forcing them to lower gas prices to return order to the market. This may sound simple enough, but according to www.breakthechain.org, a Web site devoted to stopping "junk e-mails and misinformation," the math appears to be slightly off.

A rough, conservative estimate on that Web site suggests that "on any given day, only about 10 percent to 20 percent of Americans buy gas" and that "only one in five people could participate in the boycott to begin with." So, the supposed $2.3 billion dollars the oil companies would be losing wouldn't be nearly that figure, it surmises.

Online bloggers seem to agree. If people do boycott the gas pumps Tuesday, what will stop them from filling up their tanks the day before or the day after? According to a forum on Yahoo! Answers, oil companies' total sales for the week would be normal, or at least close to it.

Different idea

Another form of the e-mail includes a 17-page attachment titled "Price of Gas." A one-day boycott is not enough, it argues. Referring to the 1997 one-day boycott, it states, "gas companies had a good laugh, as they knew that the gas that was not purchased on Monday would be purchased on Tuesday. At best, it was an inconvenience for them, but not a problem."

Instead, this attachment recommends a different plan of attack on the oil companies. "We can have a significant impact on the price of gas if we act together to initiate a price war!" The price war would begin when consumers completely boycott Exxon and Shell gas for the rest of the year, forcing them to lower their prices and initiate a price war with the other oil companies, it continues.

During her sending and receiving the e-mail concerning the one-day boycott, Cuffle received an e-mail back from a friend saying people should "learn better ways of using less gas."

A one-day gas boycott or a complete Exxon and Shell boycott, regardless of effect, still calls for people to conserve their gas consumption — whether its car pooling, slowing down or trading in an SUV for an economical compact or hybrid car.

"If it does make a difference," Cuffle said, "we can say we did something."

Saturday, May 12, 2007