How to Reduce Gas Prices Without Boycotting

Posted on May 16, 2007

Well.

May 15 came and went.

And according to an email that I received last week, today, the oil industry should be wringing its hands and saying “Woe is me! How can we have wronged the American consumers so greatly?! Let’s reduce gas prices and make them like us again!”

Yeah, I don’t think so. Oil fat cats are still sitting up there counting their money. They don’t care about that one day nip in their profits. It’s like a gnat landing on them. They’ll just swat it away…

The email message that I received called for a “nationwide” boycott of buying gas for the entire day of May 15.

Say No to Gas

It’s an almost annual message that floats around and gets people’s hopes up that they can affect gas prices. It has been called ineffective and a waste of time.

In fact, the gas station by my house increased the price for regular unleaded from $2.95 a couple of days ago to $3.03 today. Aaaah! The dreaded $3.00 barrier!

Ridiculous Gas Prices

With talks of how gas will cross the even more dreaded $4.00 (or, *gasp* $5.00) barrier, talks will obviously turn to how can we reduce gas prices?

Well it’s not going to be because of boycotting. Want to know how to reduce gas prices: decrease your demand for gas. That’ll get the oil fat cats where they sit.

Tips to reduce your demand for gas:

  1. Drive Less Aggressively. Do dip and swerve through traffic, quickly accelerating and stomping on the brakes. You could save from 5 percent to 33 percent on gas costs by driving in a calmer manner.
  2. Drive Slower. Not elderly-lady-with-blue-hair-and-the-left-turning-signal-on-for-no-reason slow. Just keep your car in the lowest gear possible. This could save you 7 percent to 23 percent in gas costs.
  3. Use the Right Type of Gas. unless You car specifically requires you to use premium gasoline, the regular grade will do. You could save up to 20 cents per gallon (that’s $3.00 per trip to the gas pump).
  4. Drive a Fuel-Efficient Vehicle. There are many fuel-efficient cars out there and there are at least 21 different models of hybrid cars, SUVs and trucks and hybrid vehicles can yield an estimated 33 to 49 mpg on average (depending on your driving style).
  5. Keep Your Car Properly Maintained. Keep your air filter clean. Keep your tires properly inflated.This can reduce your fuel cost up to 13%.
  6. Carpool or Use Alternative Transit Methods (Walk, Bike, Bus). In fact, this Friday, May 18th, is National Bike to Work Day. Now I, personally, will not be biking to work because I am out of shape and having to bike up those seven hills of Tallahassee will surely cause me to have some sort of heart failure or exhaustion-related accident. But I will ride the bus to work.

All it takes is some minor changes to your lifestyle and the way you consume gas.

According to MSNBC, a 7 percent drop in the oil industry’s profits could be enough to bring about change:

That’s how much demand fell off last winter. After peaking at 9.7 million barrels in the week of Aug. 4, 2006, U.S. gasoline demand hit a low of 9.0 million barrels during the week of Jan. 19, 2007 — a difference of 7 percent. During the same period, the average U.S. price peaked at $3.083 in August and fell to $2.213 by the end of January — a drop of 28 percent.

Reduce your gas spending, help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil (and I say this as a native of Nigeria, a country that is known for its oil production), maybe lessen our effect on the Earth and lessen the chances of global warming?

Sounds like a good idea to me!

Maybe we’ll even start to see gas prices like this again…

Old Gas Prices

Sources:

Comments

3 Responses to “How to Reduce Gas Prices Without Boycotting”

  1. Evorgleb on May 16th, 2007 11:56 am

    I feel our demand on gas is really based so much on laziness. People would rather get in the car to drive two blocks then walk.

    I catch a bus to and from work and some people may not feel like they have the extra time that taking a bus/subway may add to thier commute but honestly it helps me get more down. I sit on the bus, catching up on news, sending business emails on my treo, ect. By the time i get to work i’ve already knocked out a nice chunk of my work load.

    i feel like cars are needed but we depend on them too much. it no wonder we are the most overweight country in the world.

  2. Vanessa on May 16th, 2007 2:29 pm

    Thank you for this great post. I didn’t participate for the precise reasons you mentioned. Great recommendations and great info. I’m digging the vibe of your space. Peace.

  3. Tayo on May 16th, 2007 6:42 pm

    Evorgleb: you’re right! We are really dependent on cars. I remember I visited my family in London and they used the bus/subway/walking to go almost everywhere! I wasn’t used to it! But I know I lost at least 5 pounds that trip! Whenever I ride the bus or ride with someone else, I always appreciate the chance to just look out the window and notice things that I hadn’t while driving.

    Vanessa: Thanks for the kind comments! Love your site too!

Leave a Reply