"Musson, Carl" wrote:
> But if you fill up ahead, it serves no purpose. You are still buying 'x'
> gallons of gas... The only real way to make an impact would be to use the
> bus that day -- or walk -- or car pool -- or ride a bike... and even
> then, it might not make a bit of difference as the whole thing is, in my
> mind, political...
Carl is spot on. I recall seeing a U.S. General Accounting Office study that
investigated the apparent "collusion" of oil companies, which seemingly raise
and lower gasoline prices in tandem. What they found was 1) yes, prices are
closely coordinated, but there is *some* competition (note 1), and 2) oil
companies raise prices quickly in response to events (new OPEC limits, or a
refinery blowing up), but they lower prices more slowly (when wholesale prices
goes down, or when demand goes down).
As a result, a sudden *doubling* of demand might cause pump prices to increase,
but a sudden *halving* of demand -- such as a 3 day boycott -- would have little
effect at the pump, since station owners wait a week or so before responding to
reduced demand. Likely the only way to reduce prices over the long term is to
stop buying gas (except for your Triumph w/e driver), call up OPEC and ask them
to step up production, or similar. Still, I'd encourage you to ride your bike,
makes any Triumph seem feature-rich (heater, radio, wipers....) :-)
note 1: Apparently, gas station owners drive to work, and base their prices on
what the other guys have on their signs. A local TV news station did an
"expose." ;-) This is technically not collusion.
--
Steven Newell
Crave Technology, Denver, CO
303.675.0777 / 303.675.0999 (fax)
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