# Bring down the price of Petrol (PEOPLE POWER)



## lyonsie (27 Jan 2011)

Got this e-mail today and thought I was a GREAT IDEA....  Sent it on to 10 people and thought maybe it could go out to a greater audience....  Maybe Facebook....  What do you think....


Please see what you think and pass it on if you agree with it.
We are hitting €146.9 a litre in some areas now and soon we will be faced with paying € 1.50 per litre. So Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign' that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt  ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience
to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS - not sellers control the market place. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers  need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of  petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:
 1.  For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one) i.e. ESSO and BP.

2.  If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will  have to follow    suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. 
 Now, don't wimp out on me at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
 I am sending this note to a lot of people. If all of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)....and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on. By the time the message  reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers!
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 MILLION people will have been contacted! 
If it goes one level further, you guessed it.....
 THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all YOU have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all (and not buy at ESSO/BP). How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all  300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! 
 Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.
PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Apple, Topaz, Tesco etc. i.e. Boycott BP and Esso


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## Time (27 Jan 2011)

BP don't sell petrol in Ireland.


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## shesells (27 Jan 2011)

lyonsie said:


> Here's the idea:
> 1.  For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one) i.e. ESSO and BP.
> 
> 2.  If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will  have to follow    suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers.
> ...



BP? Haven't existed in the Republic of Ireland in well over a decade..in fact IIRC many if not all of their stations became Topaz who you suggest supporting??


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## lyonsie (27 Jan 2011)

Reading the e-mail, I believe BP and Esso are all the one...
I dont buy petrol in either, but I think there is something in this and it is worthwhile taking seriously...

This kind of thinking could also work in other areas also... maybe people power getting Tesco etc to stock more Irish Products!!!!  Anything to put more money in our pockets with jobs or price cuts...


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## seantheman (27 Jan 2011)

Wonder if Mr Hollsworth has any connection with Topaz, Maxol or Texaco?.......


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## sse (27 Jan 2011)

lyonsie said:


> Got this e-mail today and thought I was a GREAT IDEA....  Sent it on to 10 people and thought maybe it could go out to a greater audience....  Maybe Facebook....  What do you think....
> 
> 
> Please see what you think and pass it on if you agree with it.
> ...



The same rubbish, with only the prices and company names changing, has been going around since the early 2000s.

BP and Esso are not the same company - BP-Amoco and Exxon-Mobil respectively.

There is very little profit on fuel anyway, the vast majority of the cost is tax. It's also worth remembering that Tesco don't refine fuel, they buy it from BP, Shell, Esso, .....

See:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp


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## Protocol (28 Jan 2011)

Fuel taxes are a good idea.

We don't want to tax labour / jobs too much, as jobs are good.  So let's keep income taxes down.  A marginal rate of 50%+ for people earning 35k is madness.

Instead, taxes that get people to change their behaviour are more efficient.  This means taxes on alcohol, tobacco and petrol / diesel.

Our fuel taxes are by no means the highest in the EU.

[broken link removed]

Irl = 54.32c/L before the recent rise

NL = 79.51c/L


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## Protocol (28 Jan 2011)

The economically sensible approach is:

Lower VRT, or no VRT on some cars
Maybe lower annual motor tax

Higher fuel taxes
Toll all motorways
Congestion charges in cities


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## truthseeker (28 Jan 2011)

Protocol said:


> NL = 79.51c/L


 
Whats their income tax level?


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## Protocol (28 Jan 2011)

This Eurostat doc gives some data on tax systems across the EU:

[broken link removed]


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## T McGibney (28 Jan 2011)

Fuel taxes are ultimately paid by consumers, in the form of higher prices for food and other goods.  Its all well and good to talk about changing behaviour (as if Sunday drivers accounted for most of our petrol/diesel consumption) but products still have to be transported from A to B.

Given that we don't have economies of scale in this country in terms of population density, if we are to be competitive with other economies, we need to ensure that logistical costs are kept to a minimum. Higher fuel taxes do the exact opposite.


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## werner (2 Feb 2011)

Protocol said:


> The economically sensible approach is:
> 
> Lower VRT, or no VRT on some cars
> Maybe lower annual motor tax
> ...


 

That will damage the economy further (especially not needed in the recession) by rapidly increasing inflation.
Needless to say it will also hurt the poorest in society as they will pay dis-proportionately for the increased costs for the distribution for all goods and services coupled with public transport costs.


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## turtle77 (9 Feb 2011)

I actually think this email is encouraging people to boycott individual petrol stations, and therefore put more jobs at risk.
The result (if it came in to force) would be to cause specific stations to shut their doors; thereby costing jobs & reducing competition.

I'm glad it's a non-runner.


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## jhegarty (9 Feb 2011)

Protocol said:


> Congestion charges in cities



Would cost more to run than it would bring in.


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## night nav (9 Feb 2011)

i would say boycott esso and topaz instead of bp .........they would be the biggest 2 oil companies in ireland now


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## Protocol (10 Feb 2011)

jhegarty said:


> Would cost more to run than it would bring in.


 
Obviously, a congestion charge would not be introduced unless it covers all operational costs.

Some details of the London system are outlined below:


Table 10.2 Scheme revenues and costs, financial year 2007/2008. (£ million provisional).​*[FONT=NJFontBook,Bold][FONT=NJFontBook,Bold]Costs​*[/FONT][/FONT]Scheme operational, publicity and enforcement costs 91
Other costs: TfL staff; traffic management; TfL central costs 40​*[FONT=NJFontBook,Bold][FONT=NJFontBook,Bold]Total costs 131

Revenues​*[/FONT][/FONT]Standard daily vehicle charges (£8) 146
Fleet vehicle daily charges (£7) 37
Resident vehicles (£4 per week) 12
Enforcement income received 73​*[FONT=NJFontBook,Bold][FONT=NJFontBook,Bold]Total revenues 268​ 
Net revenues 137m
*[/FONT][/FONT]


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