Motorists around the country chose today to dodge pain at the pump and show oil company executives that they're fed up with soaring gas prices. Organizers shot off e-mails to consumers last week encouraging them to join the gasoline boycott.
Esmeralda Dominguez received an e-mail about the boycott several days ago. She had every intention of staying away from the pump today. That is until she realized she was running out of gas.
Dominguez : I'm like on fumes. That's why I'm putting in gas, otherwise I wouldn't have been putting in gas today. I wasn't going to leave the office, but I had to leave the office. I even told my co-worker that, ‘dude I'm going to run out of gas.’ She said ‘no, you won't,’ and I did that's why I have to put gas.
Judging by the low number of motorists at this gas station in Hillcrest this morning, some people appeared to be sticking with the boycott. Some even rode their bikes instead of driving cars.
Mike Tabor decided to skip his job today so he wouldn't have to fill his tank.
Tabor : The prices just keep going up and it's killing us all. What is all this for? I mean why do they keep jacking it up? Do they need the money? Our taxes are paying for a lot of stuff right? So why do they need the money? The oil prices keep going up. They don't ever drop. 2 or 3 cents drop and then it goes up 6. It's not good, and so I just didn't go to work.
But will the one-day boycott have any effect? Consumer gas price analyst Charles Langley of the Utility Consumers Action Network doesn't think so.
Langley : We call it slactivism because it's a cross between slacker and activist because the idea that by not doing something you're actually going to accomplish a political or economic goal is just silly. To say we're not going to buy gas for one day and this is going to bring the oil companies to their knees is just patently ridiculous.
Langley believes a more effective strategy to bring gas prices down is for consumers to contact their elected leaders.
Langley : Tell them we're fed up with high gas prices and maybe ask some pretty tough questions like why are oil prices $10 a barrel and our gas pries are 10 cents a gallon higher. Why is it that when we look at industry profits it appears that they're making an extra 50 cents a gallon on gasoline over last year then this year, why is that happening? Those are good questions, why is it that demand for gas is down and everyone in the oil industry says demand is up?
Congressional leaders have scheduled a series of hearings next week on gas prices. The hearings are called “Prices at the Pump: Market Failure and the Oil Industry.”
