March 8, 2000

6:41 PM

Mark your calendars: April 7th, 8th, and 9th.Gas prices are getting too astronomically high up here in Alaska, which is retarded since most oil in the U.S. comes from Alaska (actually I don't know about "most", but I know "alot"), and I know that they're getting outrageous in the rest of the world too, so stage a "GAS OUT" (I hope you didn't get this emailed to you already... It actually was a spam I got. But it's a worthy spam if there ever was one) on those dates, to lower the prices. BUY NO GAS ON THOSE DATES! (Oh yeah, um... sorry I linked to my web site. I would've linked to another person's web site if I could find one that had information on the national gas out day, but I couldn't. Plus, my site wasn't getting enough traffic. Maybe if you guys would link to me for once. Sheesh :)
posted by premiumpolar (16 comments total)

Yeah, the gas companies will really quake if we wait a day or two to fill up. OPEC must be shivering, too.

Me, I will go out of my way to fill up on these days. No lines! (As if enough people would be doing it to make a difference.)

Point being, the only way to change the price you pay for gas is to walk more.
posted by luke at 6:59 PM on March 8, 2000

Actually, a large part of the oil coming from Alaska goes to... (drumroll, please) Japan!

That's because it's easier to ship Mid-east oil to the US than to Japan, whereas Alaska is much closer to the land of the Rising Sun.

posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:02 PM on March 8, 2000

Alas, tis true Master Luke. And the reason for which I have discontinued my auto use for the indefinite future. Twas a good fortune that public transportation is so practical a conveyance in my region. The proud tower of so many an institution may not be beaten, but simply avoided in one's own life. I.E. USPS, public education, marriage, software licensing, medicine, Microsoft, et cetera.
posted by greyscale at 7:07 PM on March 8, 2000

I actually don't have a problem with gas prices going up. Americans have been paying much less for gas right along than we should. We feel that driving is our right, for some reason.

Admittedly, it's a necessary convenience for many, but, to my mind, it's still a privilege....

RB
posted by rebeccablood at 7:11 PM on March 8, 2000

Yes, very "retarded."
posted by treebjen at 7:12 PM on March 8, 2000

"Last year on April 30, 1999, a gas out was staged across Canada and the U.S. to bring the price of gas down, and it worked." This is downright specious. How did this "work"?
posted by luke at 7:21 PM on March 8, 2000

To Rebecca: In Alaska, if you want to get ANYWHERE, you need a car. In the winters where I live, it often gets 50° below zero and will stay there for a week, and I live 25 miles from my school. I'm not sure where you live, but I'm sure it's in a warmer city, and a lot bigger too. Big cities don't need individual cars as much. We don't have busses here (except in Anchorage).

To Treebjen: You makin' fun of me? What!? It is retarded.

To Luke: I don't know. I didn't write the spam, I just received it.
posted by premiumpolar at 8:05 PM on March 8, 2000

In the long run, higher gas prices will cause us to change our lifestyles in a positive way. Obviously the economic effects would be bad for awhile (I believe that gas prices won't drop again sometime soon), but in the long run, we'd probably come up with better living spaces, more mass transit, and saner urban design. Currently, we're victims of our own fuel habit here in America, and it's a habit that needs to be broken.

Hopefully there's some way to do it without screwing everyone who lives below the poverty line. (When gas prices go up, prices on many other things, like groceries, go up as well.)
posted by rafeco at 8:21 PM on March 8, 2000

OK... good... nobody's commented on this yet.... I just noticed something in my post at the top. I wrote, and I quote, "blah blah blah information on the national gas out DAY"... I meant to say "DAYS". I also meant to not use "..." so much in this post, but it's a habit...
posted by premiumpolar at 8:57 PM on March 8, 2000

as rafe points out, infrastructure is the key here. where there is good public transportation, the poor won't suffer as much as they will otherwise.

in a system where public transportation was widely available and used by most people, gas supply would exceed demand (or at least match it) and prices would stay down.

in cities that are built to scale, people can walk most places they need to go.

a tangential question: I've never understood why we transport so much stuff cross-country by truck. wouldn't trains be cheaper (or at least use less fuel)? it seems to me that trucks should be used for short-hauls and trains for long-hauls. but I know nothing about the actual fuel costs of each, so I wonder it works out that way.

(and as an aside, I have to admit that while I was typing this those first few statements I felt a bit like that time-cube guy... I'm overly malleable, I guess :)

RB
posted by rebeccablood at 10:13 PM on March 8, 2000

Bah . . . what's the use of a "gas out"? I'm putting my time to good use . . . scouting for assassins. Damn OPEC.
posted by gleemax at 10:16 PM on March 8, 2000

The whole idea of a gas out is ridiculous. At least it seems so to me. Whether you buy your gas the day before these scheduled outage days or after, you are still going to buy gas. The outage didn't work last year, and it won't work this year. Well, I suppose it could work, but everyone would have to sell their cars and start riding bikes. Wait, wouldn't that make the price of gas go up? Ah hell... I don't know what I'm talking about really.
posted by howa2396 at 11:58 PM on March 8, 2000

Also, after I wrote my scathing rebuttal to this last year a friend pointed out that, in addition to the general foolishness of the plot, the US has some of the lowest gas prices in the world.
posted by EngineBeak at 12:43 AM on March 9, 2000

The biggest thing that makes gas prices bearable for me is looking at how much more some sucker with an SUV is paying. (What's the word, Schadenfreude?) Of course, the original poster comes from a state where people actually need SUV's, and my issue is with the suburbanites who only drive their Ford Excession off-road (trans: gravel driveway) a couple of times a year. Maybe an increase in gas prices will renew interest in more fuel-efficient vehicles; personally, I'm hoping my next car will be a gas/electric hybrid, or a fuel cell system.

I can't imagine this gas-out having much effect among drivers who don't fill up daily. I only buy gas once a week (or less), so I'd just be filling up before or after like howa2396 says.

posted by harmful at 8:39 AM on March 9, 2000

I do agree with you guys. In most parts of the nation, you really shouldn't need to drive. You can walk, or get public transportation. But still, in Alaska, it's not a luxury, it's a NECESSITY. When it's -50 degrees for a couple weeks, and -40 degrees most of the winter, you can't walk very far. Your spit freezes before it hits the ground. It's really cold.

Also, even if it WAS warm enough to walk places here, we get A LOT of snow, and they plow it off the roads and onto the sidewalk, so you'd have to walk in the highway, which isn't very safe.

And another thing. Up here, you're stupid to NOT own a 4wheel drive, with all the snow and ice and other obstacles. And I usually have to fill my car up 3x a week. Not because I'm being wasteful at all. I just have to drive 50 miles round trip everyday to school and back.

But again, I really DO understand you guys, and agree with you. And in the summer (we have beautiful summers), I walk most everywhere.

I apologize for my original post. I obviously don't travel out of the state enough, because I forget that the rest of the world isn't like alaska.
posted by premiumpolar at 9:45 AM on March 9, 2000

Gasoline prices are high? At my local Petro-Canada, a litre of Pepsi (a sugar and water beverage) costs twice as much as a litre of gasoline (a non-renewable fuel). How about staging "COLA-OUT" day?
posted by philip at 1:54 PM on April 7, 2000