20.2.06 Jedi a petrol price
In January, I predicted that the per-litre price for petrol in New Zealand would hit $2. Transport energy specialist and doctoral candidate Michael Saunders agrees with me, as reported in The New Zealand Herald today, but for different (though related) reasons to those I outlined:
Mr Saunders, studying for a PhD at the University of Sao Paulo, said the current imbalance in supply and demand meant there will be no end to increasing oil prices, leaving New Zealand vulnerable to massive balance of payment deficits. New Zealand’s debt blowout last September caused by rising oil import costs made news around the world, he said. I still wonder what it will take for people to realize the message sent by the peak oil experts out there. Plus, shouldn’t we band together, send out a mass email, where everyone listed on it (name and town are noted) demands BP (or a nominated oil company—I use BP hypothetically) sells us petrol at a fixed price, say $1·10 a litre (where the company can still profit)? Fiftieth person forwards the finished email to BP. If there are enough of us doing it—say the number gets to 25,000 in New Zealand—then BP might get the message. Acceptance of the deal would mean BP stations carry a list of those on the mass email can receive a set discount on their petrol, on presentation of their driver’s licence and evidence of location. If it is worried, it could limit the deal to certain days. I suggest this because we all have the power to negotiate the prices of many things that we once took as untouchable. How about it? Shall we experiment? Are there enough of us to do a national campaign? After all, in March 2001, New Zealanders managed to forward an email asking atheists to note ‘Jedi’ down as their religion in the Census, as an experiment to see if it could get it recognized. It caused sufficient stir for the Statistics’ Department to say it would not recognize such a declaration (even though it would be declared as legal and truthful by the person filling in his or her census form), and for the BBC and other media to get hold of the story. There is even a Wikipedia entry on the phenomenon. We’re willing to do it for something silly—then, maybe the way of the Jedi is not so silly—so why not act the same way for something serious? Posted by Jack Yan, 12:47 Comments:
"I still wonder what it will take for people to realize the message sent by the peak oil experts out there."
Amen. We've been talking about that a lot over at The Oil Drum of late too...it's very frustrating. # posted by Prof. Goose: 2/20/2006 08:59:00 PM
Thank you for the link, Professor. I’ll pop by as well. With oil in the news every night, it’s funny this question is not being asked more strongly by the mainstream media.
Update: this week alone, petrol rose 6¢ per litre, over two price rises, in New Zealand. Current price in Wellington is $1·479 per litre for 91 octane.
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