Reasons why I will not participate in this type of ill-conceived, misguided boycott include the following:
Oil companies are not the enemy. The price of gas, as well as other petroleum products, is a result of the refinery action - not the producer. Refineries are handicapped by government regulations regarding pollution - ideas that started out with good intentions but turned into something else. Each time someone gets an idea about reducing greenhouse gases, auto emissions, etc., there is another rule which has an effect on the way gasoline is refined. Most of the current rules have no basis in reality and make very little sense. Most of the rules are the reason that very few companies refine oil in the US. Most of them have been driven overseas now, and that trend is not going to stop anytime soon. Because of that, we are even more at the mercy of other countries and OPEC.
We need rules to govern the industry, but we need smart rules, rules that make sense. We need more refining to be done in the US but that won't happen any time soon.
For a boycott to have even a miniscule effect, nearly the entire population of this country would have to stop buying gas for a period of several months or even over a year. Still sound like a good idea? Think about it.
Oil feeds my family and keeps a roof over my head. And I still have to pay just as much for gasoline as everyone else. The oil industry is not the bad guy here. But this type of a boycott would have an affect on everyone, including the clerk at the gas station who is just trying to make enough money to live on, the mechanic who fixes the car you won't be driving for months and who will not be able to eat or feed him family, the pumper who goes out and works on the wells to keep them pumping so that a purchaser can tell the oil company what it will pay for that oil - which is generally not even enough to justify producing that oil in the first place, and just about everyone else.
I intend to go fill up my car on the 15th.
Oil companies are not the enemy. The price of gas, as well as other petroleum products, is a result of the refinery action - not the producer. Refineries are handicapped by government regulations regarding pollution - ideas that started out with good intentions but turned into something else. Each time someone gets an idea about reducing greenhouse gases, auto emissions, etc., there is another rule which has an effect on the way gasoline is refined. Most of the current rules have no basis in reality and make very little sense. Most of the rules are the reason that very few companies refine oil in the US. Most of them have been driven overseas now, and that trend is not going to stop anytime soon. Because of that, we are even more at the mercy of other countries and OPEC.
We need rules to govern the industry, but we need smart rules, rules that make sense. We need more refining to be done in the US but that won't happen any time soon.
For a boycott to have even a miniscule effect, nearly the entire population of this country would have to stop buying gas for a period of several months or even over a year. Still sound like a good idea? Think about it.
Oil feeds my family and keeps a roof over my head. And I still have to pay just as much for gasoline as everyone else. The oil industry is not the bad guy here. But this type of a boycott would have an affect on everyone, including the clerk at the gas station who is just trying to make enough money to live on, the mechanic who fixes the car you won't be driving for months and who will not be able to eat or feed him family, the pumper who goes out and works on the wells to keep them pumping so that a purchaser can tell the oil company what it will pay for that oil - which is generally not even enough to justify producing that oil in the first place, and just about everyone else.
I intend to go fill up my car on the 15th.
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