CHICAGO, May 19 (UPI) -- A sign at a Shell gas station in Southern California read: Regular, $2.33; Plus, "ARM"; Premium, "LEG." If that's the way gas station owners feel about skyrocketing prices, what about consumers who have had enough of $2-a-gallon unleaded regular?
Wednesday was the day 3 million people in the United States were supposed to boycott the pumps.
"The Great Gas Out" is a grass-roots effort started by a chain e-mail posting on the Internet. If you got the message you were supposed to send it to 30 people, and they were supposed to do the same.
"It has been calculated that if everyone in the United States did not purchase a drop of gasoline for one day and all at the same time, the oil companies would choke on their stockpiles. At the same time it would hit the entire industry with a net loss of over $4.6 billion dollars. Which affects the bottom lines of the oil companies. Therefore May 19 has been formally declared 'stick it up their behind' day and the people of this nation should not buy a single drop of gasoline that day," the e-mail message said.
Similar boycotts were tried when pump prices peaked in 1999 and again in 2000.
The idea is to hit oil companies in the pocketbook, but there's no way of knowing how many people avoided pumping gas. And even if they did not buy gas today, they'll need to fill up eventually.
The average pump price for regular unleaded was $2.01 nationwide, up 7.6 cents from the previous week, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
The American Automobile Association's weekly Fuel Gauge Survey said regular hit a national average $1.99 on Tuesday. Prices topped $2 in 20 states and the District of Columbia. A year ago, the national average price of gasoline was $1.50 a gallon.
AAA says dealers are not to blame.
Blame crude oil prices, smog-fighting clean-air regulations that mandate 18 different blends of gasoline be sold nationwide and supply and demand.
"It's not that there is a conspiracy or any one or two oil companies have gotten together and decided to raise prices and make maximum profits. The issue is that the industry is really not the master of its own destiny," AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom told the Washington Post.
So far, record-high gas prices have not affected consumer behavior much.
AAA estimates 39.9 million Americans will travel 50 or more miles from home by car this Memorial Day weekend, a 3.6-percent increase in travel from 2003.
"Record-high gas prices won't keep Americans from traveling this holiday," said Steve Nolan of AAA Chicago.
The attorney general of Michigan and California legislators plan to investigate retail gasoline prices. In Michigan, inspectors will visit gas stations and monitor prices statewide until Labor Day looking for evidence of collusion or price gouging.
"The price of oil, refinery capacity and the usual laws of supply and demand are outside my purview. Enforcing Michigan's laws is not," said state Attorney General Mike Cox. Motorists who feel they have been gouged can file a complaint on the state's consumer-protection hotline.
A California Senate committee will examine marketing practices of big oil companies that are now posting record profits.
Democrats see soaring gas prices as a presidential election year windfall.
The Democratic National Committee Wednesday re-launched GrandOldPetroleum.com, a Web site featuring state-by-state price information on rising prices and messages about President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's close ties to the oil industry.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has called for the administration to put pressure on oil-producing countries. Ten Democratic governors had a conference call with Kerry on oil prices Tuesday. Other lawmakers suggest the government release oil from the 660 million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve -- or at least divert new crude going into storage.
"This administration needs to address gas prices, which have reached record highs across the country through unfair practices by both OPEC and oil corporations," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis. "By challenging OPEC to increase production, cracking down on unfair practices at the gas pump and releasing stored oil as the law says we can, we can protect the American consumer from these out-of-control prices."
Bush and the U.S. Energy Department reject tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is 95 percent full and is receiving 120,000 barrels of oil daily.
President Bill Clinton released 30 million barrels of oil in 2000 to stabilize gas prices, but it's hard to imagine 120,000 barrels a day making a big difference in retail prices.
A single ocean-going supertanker holds about 2.5 million barrels of crude.
Suspending the fill of the federal petroleum reserve would lower retail prices an estimated 7 to 10 cents a gallon, according to Energy Department officials.
"Our country has the means with which to reverse these trends, but the administration has failed to bring much-needed relief to our working families," said Feingold, co-sponsor of a resolution calling on the White House to pressure OPEC to increase production and halt deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The Air Transport Association Wednesday called for the federal government to divert SPR oil in light of crude prices topping $41 a barrel. James May, president of the trade group, says higher fuel costs have all but wiped out any chance for a profitable year for the airline industry as a whole.
"We will not play politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," said Bush. "That petroleum reserve is in place in case of major disruptions of energy supplies to the United States. The idea of emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would put America in a dangerous position in the war on terror."
No one has suggested emptying the reserve, a two-month supply of crude oil stored away after the 1973 oil embargo.
Consumer backlash over high gas prices could worsen if pump prices approach $3 a gallon during the busy summer travel season.
A poll released by the National Retail Federation found nearly a third of consumers would curtail summer vacation plans and cut back on unnecessary spending to compensate for high gas costs.
Forty-three percent said higher gas prices would not have a major impact on their household spending.
The 2004 Gas Prices Intentions and Actions Survey of 6,899 consumers was conducted by BIGresearch May 5-13 and had a margin of error of 1 percentage point.
Retailers fear the psychological impact of higher gas prices will cause consumers to cut back.
"Ultimately, higher prices at the pump act as and additional tax on consumers, and consumers don't like to be taxed," said Tracy Mullin, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based National Retail Federation.
Chicago cabbies are circulating petitions demanding a rate hike because of the longer hours drivers have to work to pay for fuel. Some taxi drivers say instead of working eight or nine hours a day they have to drive 10 or 11 hours to cover higher gas costs. Chicago, which has the 12th-highest taxi fares in the country, froze cab rates in November 2000.
"As fuel prices keep going higher, that basically hurts the economy. Everybody realizes that ... the price of gas is affecting the economy and I think they have to do something," said Mayor Richard Daley.
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(UPI Chief Energy Correspondent Hil Anderson contributed to this report.)
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