Gaswars Online: Gas, cheap...or Gas-free?

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Gaswars Online is representative of a whole crop of websites devoted to finding the cheapest gas prices in the neighborhood, wherever in the world your neighborhood might be. Gasbuddy.com is another very popular site in the same vein.

This is how it works: Truck drivers (and other site visitors) log in to gaswars online and report the lowest gas prices they find. Others are able to benefit from their experience - and sometimes the savings are considerable! On Gas Buddy (gasbuddy.com) I saw a 15 cent difference between a station on the east side of Bremerton and the west side, which amounts to a few dollars a fill-up, doesn't it? Doesn't take long for that to add up.

But hang on.

On this "gas and fuel money saving tips" page, Gas Buddy offered several ways to save money at the pump. Stay off the accelerator and the brakes as much as you can. Inflate your tires. Carpool (yeah, right). Get a fuel-efficient car, maybe even a HYBRID.

A hybrid? Hey, how about an electric car? How about buying NO more gas?

They never think of this.

The more gas costs, the better electric cars look.

gaswars 2 (Yes, even the ones that resemble golf carts; ) It's amazing how UN-picky you can get when your back is up against the wall; suddenly that gargantuan, gas-gobbling SUV you bought a few years back (before the real estate bubble burst and the dollar started sinking like a gangster in concrete boots) doesn't look so good to you anymore...

...and that golf cart's starting to swagger. Two seats, 25 miles an hour, 30 miles on a charge? Great! That's 22 miles an hour faster than I can walk, drier and warmer than a bike, and it'll cost less than a quarter to charge it back up.

Well, okay, good thought - but wait, I think we can do better than a golf cart; )

red kurrent If you're done waiting for your electric dream car to be manufactured by Toyota, you can check out the neighborhood electric vehicles at a dealership in your area, available TODAY and street legal in pretty much every state. You'll be going 25 mph (35 mph in lead-foot Washington and Montana), you'll be in a very nice little (financable!) car, very fun to drive...and you'll never have to GAS IT UP.

Think of that. Bye-bye, gaswars.

Gaswars 2.0 - A REAL "gas war".

gaswars 3 I was reading the other day, sadly, that the "gas-out" protest won't work. What's the "gas-out"? It's a protest against rising gas prices in which people stop buying gas for a day. It's supposed to bring the greedy oil companies to their knees, and force them to lower their prices.

So why won't it work?

Because we're not actually changing our gas consumption. We're buying the same amount of gas we ever were...

...just on a different day. Ineffective.

gaswars 4 A more effective suggestion? Systematically boycott one or two of the major gas brands - like Chevron, Mobil, or Exxon. Choose the ones with the worst environmental records; )

The "oil industry" may not notice a one-day moratorium on their gas, but Exxon would surely notice if a large block of people refused to buy gas from them.

Better yet...reduce your gas consumption. Drive less, or break the nasty gas habit altogether and get your family an electric car!

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
- Woody Allen


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