New e-mails and social media messages highlight an old myth about pumping gas.
The messages state that there will be an organized one day boycott on pumping gas on April 15, 2012. This boycott attempt is nothing new. In fact, the planned boycott has been attempted since 1999, and every time it hasn’t worked.
The major flaw in the plan is that while the one day totals for not buying gas might seem huge, they only delay people from actually buying the same amount of gas. Since individuals have to buy gas to get where they're going, any one-day interruption only shifts the buying to another day. The one day hiccup would do little in the overall numbers for oil companies, and definitely not change prices in the long term.
Another flaw in the plan is that the people who are hurt the most from this "gas-out" are the independent retailers that own the gas stations. Losing one full day of business would be critical to their operation as they are at the mercy of the global economy to set the price of gas.
For even more on this myth, check out snopes.com’s page, which details the repeated times this "gas-out" has been attempted.
