Boycott BP & Esso

[Hightower]

Well if anybody is interested here is the address

Boycott BP & Esso Petition : [ powered by iPetitions.com ]

 

Just set that up - it may be no good at all but if you want to take part then get your name on and pass the address to family and friends.

 

It's just like all the past emails everyone has received before - the only difference being we can all see how many are actively taking part giving more motivation for others to follow suit rather than thinking they are the only ones doing it.

 

I know what some of you are saying but I live near no-one I work with so cannot car share. I need my transport so this seems the only way I can do my bit. It might not work at all, but what if it does? Surely it's worth planning where you next fill up to see if we can make a difference.

 

I live half a mile from a BP and there's an Esso on my way to work also - but that said it won't be too hard. What do BP offer anyway.... nectar points - whoop deee dooo!

[Guest Guest]

But BP and Esso only make a few pence on every litre. Its the govt. we need to be boycotting.

[OutToLunch]

Rather excellent chain email by a Shell employee there then...

[Hightower]

We are paying a lot of tax on petrol, but who are putting the prices up at the minute? Not the government, no tax rise on fuel till September.

 

It's the petrol stations we need to show.

[mattx]

But BP and Esso only make a few pence on every litre. Its the govt. we need to be boycotting.

 

The gov don't set oil prices though......

If you are going to boycott something - how about opec ? They just sit on their arses all day counting their money.....

[OutToLunch]

Because if you could keep 5-10p off by September it will have been a worthwhile cause? That email has been doing the rounds for years.

 

Petrol forecourt price rises reflect rises in the costs of crude for whatever scaremongering has happened in the last few days. Doesn't change the fact that more than half of what you pay is fuel duty...

 

snopes.com: Gas Out

[Netman]

From Wikipedia:

 

From 2007-10-01 the main road fuel (petrol and diesel) duty rate in the UK is GBP£0.5035 per litre. Value Added Tax (VAT), currently at 17.5%, is also charged on the price of the fuel and on the duty. At a pump price of 128.8p/litre (typical for diesel as at May 2008), this would put the combined tax at 69.53p/litre, or approximately USD$5.20 per US gallon. Thus without tax, the retail price would be 59.26p per litre, making a combined tax rate of 117%.

 

Jet fuel used for international aviation attracts no duty, and no VAT.

 

What's the point just picking on BP and Esso?

Many people already boycott Shell and others for ethical reasons...

[dezt]

BP near me yesterday had no petrol left, all the pumps were out of action, I had to go to a cheaper petrol station..... what a shame

[mattx]

BP near me yesterday had no petrol left,

 

We're all doomed!

[CESIL]

I have already taken action to save money...I have bought a bicycle.

 

With the amount of traffic on the roads in the morning and by using routes that cars can't my journey takes about 5-10 minutes longer by bike than by car.

 

At around £40 per week for petrol my bike will pay for itself in about 6 weeks!

[Ryan]

Yer, i doubt boycotting those two will do much. Where do Tesco, Morrison's, Asda and Sainsbury get their petrol and diesel from?

[Hightower]

What's the point just picking on BP and Esso?

 

My village used to have a local bus service and a county wide one that both ran the same routes.

 

The local bus charged £1.10 for a certain journey while the county wide one charged £2.00. The county wide service eventually had to drop it's prices to match the local service as people didn't mind waiting 20 minutes to catch the local bus.

 

My point is this - Boycott BP & Esso and they will have to lower prices to get customers back.

 

Rather excellent chain email by a Shell employee there then... ;-)

 

Actually Shell and Esso are part of the same firm so Boycotting Esso is basically boycotting Shell.

[OutToLunch]

My point is this - Boycott BP & Esso and they will have to lower prices to get customers back.

 

No, BP and Esso will sell their excess petrol to other suppliers, so at the end of the day you're still buying the same petrol. Do you not think if this has been doing the rounds since 2001 and not made a jot of difference that it might be totally ineffective?

[Guest Guest]

My point is this - Boycott BP & Esso and they will have to lower prices to get customers back.

 

Why will they? The only reason petrol at Tescos/etc can be cheaper is because they make a loss on it to attract customers into the store.

 

If everyone in the country boycotted all the big names then yeah it would probably save us a few pence in the short term, but if we want to make a real saving we need to boycott the govt. Plus if you made all the big names cut their prices than all the small garages willl have to shut as they wont be able to make a loss

[Hightower]

No, BP and Esso will sell their excess petrol to other suppliers, so at the end of the day you're still buying the same petrol. Do you not think if this has been doing the rounds since 2001 and not made a jot of difference that it might be totally ineffective?

 

Hey man,

 

Don't start shouting your mouth off. I'm trying something here. Am I forcing you to sign up for this? Am I forcing you to try and help?

 

I think you'll find that my first post says "it may be no good at all BUT if you want..."

 

All I said was if you think it might help then go for it - I'm not preaching to anybody.

[mattx]

I blame Hitler.

Now go and listen to 'Won't Get Fooled Again' by The Who.

Edited June 2, 2008 by mattx

[localzuk]

Why will they? The only reason petrol at Tescos/etc can be cheaper is because they make a loss on it to attract customers into the store.

 

If everyone in the country boycotted all the big names then yeah it would probably save us a few pence in the short term, but if we want to make a real saving we need to boycott the govt. Plus if you made all the big names cut their prices than all the small garages willl have to shut as they wont be able to make a loss

 

If we want to make a big saving, we need to lobby for more research into alternatives! No matter what happens, oil is a finite resource and as such, as supply falls and demand rises, the price will rise also. It is the only way to reduce demand.

[Guest Guest]

we need to lobby for more research into alternatives!

 

Yep.

 

But we already have perfectly good alternatives, they need abit more developement mind but we're nearly there. Only prblem is our govt. wont put money into it.

 

What i am talking about is nuclear power stations, and hydrogen/electric cars.

[dhicks]

BP near me yesterday had no petrol left

We're all doomed!

 

Indeed - I remember watching the Mad Max films on TV when I was young, now it looks like we get to live it for real. Way cool!

 

--

David Hicks

[Hightower]

Oh yeah, nuclear power stations - I'm guessing they'll do wonders for our carbon footprint.

[Andrew_C]

Yawn. Been here before as others have said.

 

I have no/little choice but to use the car. Bus takes an hour to do the 20 min car journey, and the last one home is 45 mins before I finish work.

 

14 mile journey, so possible on a bicycle, but my knees wouldn't take it any more. Can't move closer due to house price insanity, so I'm stuffed.

 

I could sell my daughter into white slavery I suppose...

[Ryan]

I give you two camel. Ok, three. No more!

[localzuk]

Yep.

 

But we already have perfectly good alternatives, they need abit more developement mind but we're nearly there. Only prblem is our govt. wont put money into it.

 

What i am talking about is nuclear power stations, and hydrogen/electric cars.

 

I like the look of the space power array system that is now being talked about again. They reckon for a $1bn they could develop an example system, including the equipment to auto-build it in space. Seems like a good investment to me!!

[Sirbendy]

isn't it now 19% on diesel and 17% on petrol? I'm sure I read it's higher on diesel. It's all bloody silly. I do agree with some "it's all profiteering and greed" viewpoints though..once the fuel is delivered, the prices should be fixed until the next delivery...not go up every day..that's profiteering IMO.

 

OPEC are ..well...money grabbing sods, is a good summary. The government also - but from a lot of what I've been hearing, they're in financial poo..which I could believe..useless bunch of pillocks.

 

I've discovered a local bus from by my house (apparently) to outside this building by 8am, leaving at night by 4.53pm to be back by 5.30..it'd mean me leaving early (5.15 finish officially), but if I got here at 8, instead of my official 8.30 start - stuff it.

 

Reckoned to be about £40 for a monthly ticket...but damned if I know where I can get one..might give it a try for a weekly and see how I get on.

 

If it goes OK, I'll use it for work, and the car for the "special" days like trips to Civic offices, weekend shopping and family visits, and so on. Bearing in mind that most of the grind for the car is work journeys, and even then I managed to wring a 3 week tank out of £49, I reckon I'll extend a tank of fuel over..at least a month and a half.

 

Electric cars - yes. Most people do short journeys that are well within the capabilities of them. Or so it seems. Electric scooters also. There are even electric mountain bike conversions now, FFS..and you can get trailers and god knows what to bolt on.

 

A decent public transport system would be good..not just in cities like london and brum..

 

What we also need is to go backwards a bit...reduce our sprawl..bring back local shops, butchers, and so on...cut out the need to travel to get essentials..again, it seems we're quite well supplied where I live...there are a lot of local trades like that still that are in walking distance, and we're trying them out.

 

As to power...wind/solar/wave..come on, we're an ISLAND...lets play to our strengths there...OK, not so much solar, but it's still useable.. I bought a solar panel at the weekend, and a load of electronics to build battery chargers and LED light units etc..all good so far.

 

Heating...stuff oil and gas. Go back to woodburners and solid fuel...recycle as we do now, burn some as well..cuts landfill down. Surely we have the technology to "scrub" the chimney output? I'm sure power stations do it...? Or geothermal...our new facility will be entirely geothermal heated..and we'll have wind turbines and possibly solar as well. I can't wait to see it.

 

Nuclear - I'm not a fan of. It may be "safe", but...it doesn't fill me with confidence...didn't someone on here discuss this not so long back, and someone replied with the uses and ease of waste reprocessing?

[torledo]

Yawn. Been here before as others have said.

 

I have no/little choice but to use the car. Bus takes an hour to do the 20 min car journey, and the last one home is 45 mins before I finish work.

 

14 mile journey, so possible on a bicycle, but my knees wouldn't take it any more. Can't move closer due to house price insanity, so I'm stuffed.

 

I could sell my daughter into white slavery I suppose...

 

that last line belongs in a bird and fortune sketch for sure .....

 

someone else mentioned opec, i think this time it's not opec castrating the supply of crude but the insatiable demand for the black stuff from all over the world....only the saudi's can pump oil any faster, and broons announcements about expanding north sea operations are quite simply laughable, what was it 70,000 barrels a day extra ?....that's a drop in the ocean. North sea oil extraction is a cottage industry compared to output and reserves in the middle east.

 

targeting the car drivers and the way cars and other transport are made and used is probably a red herring, as the biggest demand/biggest users are surely going to be in the gas utilities, oil refinment and manufacturing rather than car and air travel.

 

But looking at the motor car.. i think it's going to take a huge jolt from govts. to force the car makers to actually speed up time to market of zero emission, non oil burning/petrol guzlling motor vehicles...i read an article from an experienced former supremo of a car manufacturer (lotus i think it was) who said the way that new cars are sold does not put sufficient pressure on car makers to innovate for production....if cars were leased to drivers from the manufactuer instead of sold it would put more onus on the car makers to make them more reliable, less costly to run, more efficent.

 

as for air travel, i don't know what the latest technologies are for powering jet engines, and i'm not even sure whether air travel is the problem. You've got airbus going in one direction for long haul and boeing going in completely the opposite direction, which one if either is a more efficient way of transporting people ?

 

i think both consumer and industrial reliance on natural gas is going to make that a very hard fuel to replace with an environmentally sustainable alternative....and ofcourse the amount of stuff made from oil is mind boggling. check out this old bit of info on oil in manufacturing and the effects on price of crud oil.

 

Tracing the Economic Effects of Oil Prices