I don’t really ever do those, “send this to 10 people and have them send it to 10 people, blah, blah, blah” types of emails – mainly because I know these type emails are the best way to put 1000’s of email addresses into the hands of SPAMMERS and other people that build and sell email addresses.

That’s why I decided to blog the email I got today re: Gas prices strategy-Worth considering.

I’ve been a Exxon/Mobil customer for years – use the SpeedPass thing, have the whole Upromise thing hooked into my Exxon/Mobil card, etc. – but I have to be honest with you: the fact that Exxon/Mobil made something like $9.3 BILLION (yes, billion with a “B”) in just the FIRST THREE months of 2007 just makes me sick. I just paid $2.91 for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel and there is no end in sight to the price increases.

As usual, I checked out snopes.com, an urban legends website for this email and I DID find it on there and the article refutes the assertion that if you boycott or stop buying from a certain company it would help – they state it won’t work because if, let’s say, people stop buying gasoline from the Exxon/Mobil gas stations, then Exxon/Mobil will just sell its gas to other outlets (like BJ’s, Stop & Shop, Food Bag, etc.). In the end, they’ll still sell their fuel, whether it be thru their gas stations or someone else’s.

At any rate, I think people posting these type things and getting the discussion out there is important, even if it’s not necessarily the right action to take. We should all probably just pick up the phone, call our representatives in Congress and tell them “stop the craziness or you’re going to have to find a new job” – THEN you’ll see things change pretty quickly!

~~~~~~~~o~r~i~g~i~n~a~l~~~e~m~a~i~l~~~~b~e~l~o~w~~~~~~~~~~

This just might work.

GAS WAR – an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It’s worthy of your consideration.

Join the resistance! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon by summer and it might possibly go higher! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the “don’t buy gas on a certain day” campaign that was going around earlier! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t continue to “hurt” ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you’re probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 – $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace….. not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can’t just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here’s the idea:

For the rest of 2007, DON’T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It’s really simple to do! Now, don’t wimp out at this point…. keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =300) … and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3,000)…and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it….. THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That’s all. (If you don’t understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people…. Well, let’s face it, you just aren’t a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I’ll bet you didn’t think you and I had that much potential, did you?

Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.