There are many places to place the blame for the way gas prices rise and fall in the US. Damaged piplelines, ports on strike, lower supplies, expectations of lower future demand, lowered production or holding back for higher prices, power grid blackouts, President Bush’s buddies in oil & gas lobbyists, and on and on and on.
But be sure of one thing, if you, the consumer, do not make a public outcry and convince the producers of gasoline to stop damaging the American public’s transportation infrastructure, the end will never come to the rising prices.
As Americans, we tend to sit in our living rooms and complain, but rarely go outside just to make our voices heard. Don’t bother to write your Congressman or Senator, they have to listen to the lobbyists and corporate interest campaign contributions or risk not having money in the campaign funds to run in an election.
Get yourself out of the house and on TV as fast as you can. Hold a sign up at your local gas station and make the demand for lower prices. Afterall, if you are willing to pay me $600 for a toilet seat and not complain, then I will gladly take your $600 in cash. Tell the controllers they’re out of control and you are now going to take control.
GASOLINE IS ONLY GOOD FOR 30 DAYS
This can be the consumers advantage over the gasoline price. Almost all gasoline produced in today’s US market is basically only good for about 30 days of storage before it begins to go bad. Use this fact to your advantage when deciding when to buy and how much to buy.
STOP BUYING AS MUCH GASOLINE
Pool your trips into a shortest route schedule. TURN OFF the A/C when you drive. Carpool or offer someone else a ride when you go to an event. Decide to vacation close to home and use public transit to do it. If everyone starts buying less, the supply is only good for 30 days and thus the price has to fall in order to sell it or lose it.
STAGE A PROTEST AND GET EACH OTHER INVOLVED
Talk to other consumers when you are at the gas station pumps. See if they want to get together somewhere and make a protest. But try to make it as big as it needs to be in your area in order to draw the press attention. Get on your evening news by being BIG news.
BUY A 30-DAY STORAGE TANK
Although it’s illegal in most US cities to do so, you can consider a 30-day or smaller storage tank to take advantage of the lower gas price and use it up during high prices. Most pickup trucks can have a secondary fuel tank added. Buy in bulk, but be sure to use it up before 30 days. It’s still gas after 30 days, but the quality will be lessened with time and it could damage most internal combustion engines and their fuel systems if it gets too old.
