It has been over a year since the guy who owns the local Shell station filled me in on how gas prices are set in this country, and how the station owners are governed with what they do. He told me then that Exxon-Mobile set the rate and no one was allowed to be more than certain cents below it, which in effect also ran the little guy out of business.

Now I've heard about an email being circulated saying we don't need to boycott buying gasoline...but only need to boycott Exxon-Mobile. I believe this to be accurate, and congruent with the way the Shell guy explained things to me.

I just searched and found this: http://www.petitiononline.com/oil219/petition.html It's a small sampling comparatively, as the email seems to be widespread. The idea is to agree to not buy gasoline from Exxon-Mobile.

We truly can't quit buying gasoline, and even if we boycotted one day, we would all fill up the day before. But by boycotting Exxon-Mobile, they would HAVE to drop their prices. Once Exxon-Mobile lowers their prices, this allows the other stations to also drop their prices. You see, there is a regulation that prohibits the other stations from selling gas more cheaply than Exxon-Mobile "allows."

There are plenty of people claiming many things for the high price, government regulations being one of them, but the inside story is the station owners are prevented from being competitive. The Inside Story, mind you.

Why not give this a try for the rest of this year at least? Don't buy gas at Exxon-Mobile stations. It's that easy.

The price will continue to go up as long as we're willing to pay it. Some of the news media are already "threatening" or warning us that gasoline will hit $6.50 by election time. Let's speak out in a way that we'll be heard!

The "online petition" isn't what I am promoting, just used the link for more info. The main idea is to NOT BUY EXXON MOBILE gas.

I don't believe this is a hoax. And who's to say it isn't their paid employees writing all those "hoax" articles? LOL I wouldn't put all my trust into snopes anyway, just like some ppl believe everything they read in wikipedia. I believe we the people CAN change things! (And since the hoax papers have been floating around for years and still no one believes them, wonder why?)

I gave my background on this. I've spoken to the players in the field on this. They are prevented from lowering their prices, even though they "own" the franchises. Shell stations in California filed suit trying to be allowed lowered prices.

There is NO "good" reason for the higher prices of oil... there is no shortage, and no threatened shortage (the old lies and excuses.) They're already preparing us for 6-10 dollars a gallon! Just because they think we'll pay it.

It's called "zone pricing" by the way. The zone can be a region, or as small as the local block of mixed gas stations. You can't price a certain price higher than the local Exxon-Mobile station.

I just talked to someone helping me with a problem order, they're in Michigan I think? (Might have been Kentucky (LOL are those two close? lol) Anyway, she was complaining that gasoline is $2.50 a gallon now! 2.50? It's over $4. here in South Florida. Now, wonder why it's more expensive some places than others.. hmmm because they know who will pay what for gas! (And the tourists from other countries like Europe, will pay it, as their dollar goes twice as far here in America right now.)