$25 lasts me for about a week if I'm lucky...

So, this morning someone forwarded something to me. It was a short article about an effort to have a 'gas-out' on May 19th. The idea is that everyone should not buy any gasoline on this day in an effort to somehow screw the government or the oil companies or someone, I don't know. Here's the article:

IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT
PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL
COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER
4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT TO THEM DAY" AND
THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.

THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY
PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.

WAITING ON THIS ADMINISTRATION TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT
GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT
THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO?

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE
SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE
FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS
SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES
ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE
WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.

SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU
KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE MAY 19TH A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE
UNITED STATES SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Sounds a little compelling, right? Well, I admit, I usually research these kinds of things to find the truth of the matter. This morning, I didn't. I went and forwarded the email to a bunch of my friends who I thought might find it interesting. Almost instantly, my friend Greg emailed me back with a link to a Snopes article concerning the oil article. For those unfamiliar, Snopes is a site dedicated to debunking urban myths. They're very good at it, too. I suggest checking it out. So, I read the article on Snopes, forwarded it everyone I just sent the article to originally, and went about my day. Then, another friend, Adawndria, who just happens to live in Texas, and has lots of friends who work in the oil industry emailed me even more refutation of the original article. Here's what her friend had to say about the whole thing:

First, this wouldn't work. A one day dramatic trough in gasoline
purchases
would be offset by a corresponding spike a few days later when everyone
realized they had no way to get to work.

For those concerned about price gouging by oil companies, keep in mind
they
only make around $.05 per gallon of gas purchased, one of the lowest
profit
margins per measurable unit in the market today. How much do you think
it
costs starbucks to make a cup of coffee or Coca-Cola to fill a Dasani
bottle
with what they admit is only tap water?

If you checked the price of gasoline in 1953 the average price per
gallon
was 27 cents. If you take what the $1.00 bill was worth then and figure
in
51 years of inflation, that gallon of gas would sell for $1.89. Don't
blame
oil companies, blame inflation. What causes inflation? Lack of
supply.
Surely everyone remembers that from basic high school macro-economics.
Remember when people only paid a nickel for a fountain drink?

No oil company has been allowed to build a new refinery in the United
States
since 1982. The current refineries in operation operate at around 99%
capacity every day. The environmentalists and the NIMBYist (Not In My
Back
Yard) have effectively blocked off any move to expand the nation's
ability
to lower fuel prices.

In recent years, the distribution costs of gasoline have risen. Prior
to
January of this year, refiners had to manufacture 16 different mixtures
of
gasoline to supply to different parts of the country in order to comply
with
the EPA regs under the Clean Air Act. In January, that problem
multiplied,
as EPA raised the number of different mixtures to something over 25.
Many
of the required additives are the result of pork-barrel politics,
requiring
distributors to add a certain mixture of ethanol or other organic
alcohols
to gasoline.

So, there ya have it, kiddies. You really can't trust what you read on the interweb.

...wishing I woulda bought a hybrid car...