Anonymous E-mail Builds Pump Protest
Is Gasoline Boycott a Prank or Consumer Movement?
By David Noack
03/08/00 21:00
NEW YORK (APBnews.com) -- An anonymous e-mail is calling for a three-day
boycott to protest skyrocketing gas prices, urging motorists to put on the
brakes and stay away from the pumps.
The "Gas Out 2000" message is similar to a campaign last year that called
for a one-day gasoline boycott on April 30. Both efforts are aimed at the
big oil companies and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or
OPEC.
While the organizers of the 1999 gas out had ties to a California group
maintaining an anti-petroleum industry Web site, this year's e-mail was sent
anonymously, with no way of getting in touch with the sender.
The effects of that boycott were uneven at best and in the long term did not
bring the price of gasoline down, say energy experts.
A meaningless effort?
This latest boycott is a topic of debate on Internet discussion lists like
misc.consumers and alt.autos. Some say the effort is meaningless, that
people will simply fill up their tanks prior to the boycott days, while
others suggest targeting individual oil companies instead.
Drivers in the United States paid on average $1.42 per gallon of gasoline in
late February, the steepest prices since the Gulf War in 1990 and 51 cents a
gallon more than a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. By
the time the peak summer driving season rolls around, the price could be $2
a gallon.
Whether the gas boycott will occur at all is difficult to gauge, since the
e-mail is being sent around anonymously and is not tied to any group or
organization. There are some observers who are even calling this the latest
in a series of online pranks and urban legends.
The e-mail urges a boycott April 7 through April 9.
"The more people we can get to take part, the louder the message will be,"
it reads. "Please on the days of April 7, 8, and 9th do not purchase any
gasoline. Purchase what you need either before the dates listed above or
after, but try not to purchase any during the GAS OUT."
Experts predict small effect
Some observers say that the gas boycott may be nothing more than a prank,
and energy experts predict little effect on prices.
John Felmy, director of policy analysis and strategic planning for the
American Petroleum Institute in Washington, blames high prices for gas and
heating oil on a sharp rise in the price of crude oil, which has almost
tripled in the past year from $11 to $32 per barrel.
Jerry Cheske, a spokesman for the Automobile Association of America, said
that he is aware of the Internet effort.
"I'm skeptical that something of that nature can succeed," Cheske said.
"People can adjust their buying habits and not buy gas on a particular day,
so what they do is buy their gas the day before or the day after."
'An unreliable way of communicating'
David Emery, who runs the Urban Legends and Folklore Forum on About.com, an
online community, said it is difficult to know whether the gas boycott is
for real or a fake. He said that one of the claims being made in the
e-mail -- that last year's one-day boycott got oil companies to lower the
price of gas -- is misleading.
"If last year's Gas Out worked so well, why do we have to do it again?" he
asked.
He said that sending out this kind of a message anonymously makes it
suspect.
"Maybe it's sincere, maybe it's a prank -- either way, my point, as someone
who tracks and studies Internet rumor-mongering, is that forwarded e-mail is
an inherently unreliable way of communicating," Emery said. "Besides the
fact that it's completely anonymous and offers nothing in the way of
substantiating facts, a message like this is subject to spontaneous change
as it travels from modem to modem."
Edgar Dworsky, a former Massachusetts consumer official who now runs a Web
site called Consumer World, said that even under the best of circumstances,
such a boycott would have "symbolic" effect at best.
"The law of supply and demand rules, and a three-day buying moratorium will
have no effect on short-term demand," said Dworsky.
David Noack is an APBnews.com staff writer (david.noack@apbnews.com).
Ciaran
"Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by
incompetence"
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