Advice before Jumping on the Bandwagon: Don't

So, show of hands, who here has gotten an email about May 15th, telling you that we are going to crack down by telling those big bad oil companies that we aren't going to buy their gas for one full day. Yeah, that'll show them.

There is another email making the rounds stating that if we can boycott the two biggest middle eastern oil suppliers, Exxon and Mobil, they will be forced to lower their gas and everyone else will follow suit.

You know what I plan to do? On May 15th, I'm going to go find an Exxon or Mobil station and get some gas. I bet the lines won't be that bad and it will make for a quick fill up.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm frustrated with the skyrocketing gas prices as much as the next person, and any fiscally minded person oughta be. But there is a better way to try to combat rising gas prices then to skip a day to buy gas or to bypass one specific station completely.

If you continue to do your errands and use your car the same as you always do, it doesn't matter if you skip Tuesday, you still used the gas and you still need to fill that tank up, whether it be on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday. In other words, you're still consuming the same amount of gas! Maybe people should clue in that this shouldn't be a day where everyone just waits to fill their gas tanks. Instead, maybe the consensus should be that to solve the problem, you simply need to bring the demand for gas down.

Boy, what a concept.

If everyone participated in an event where instead of DRIVING their cars to wherever they needed to go, they found alternate modes of getting to their destinations. For instance, carpooling, public transit, WALKING, Bicycling, or a bunch of other items that cause us to use less fuel. Really, the way to crack down on rising gas prices is to stop using so much of it.

Onto the other popular idea making the rounds. The boycott of Exxon/Mobil (or whatever other gas companies). The problem with this one is the unique industry that is the oil industry. Exxon and Mobil don't buy their gas from one specific place. They will buy it from wherever they need it, and in turn sell it where the demand is. If they aren't selling their gas, and everyone instead hits the Shell station across the street, well, guess what? The demand for gas at Shell will go up, they will run out of gas, and they will turn around and buy it from the Exxon that people are boycotting, which in turn, will raise prices even more. Brilliant strategy.

Furthermore (and correct me if I'm wrong) but most gas stations are franchised out, so when you boycott an Exxon station, you are hurting the family that owns that specific gas station. The head honchos over at corporate might feel a little dent, but hey, they'll turn around and sell their gas wherever they have a buyer. But who will get hurt is the owner of that station, which will lose their revenue.

More information over at Snopes. -
Boycotting Exxon/Mobil
May 15th

I'm doing a persuasive speech on this topic, so I'm doing as much research as I can on it.