Sky News business editor Michael Wilson

Emma’s blog on Friday about the tanker strike drew a hefty response from you, as members of the public, insiders in the oil industry and angry businesses. For what it’s worth here was my take:

“a slice of the answer is for us non business people to drive less and share more..not businesses - let's let them do what they can - but our social/getting to the station driving needs to be shared. Let's make one day a week when we draw off the demand by sharing/biking/training/busing... you just see how the price will come down."

Consumer power in action.

Is it as foolish as it sounds? If we were to reduce our energy demands significantly, there’s no doubt that the oil price would come down.

I wasn’t trying to take on OPEC single-handedly, but I spent the weekend making sure there were no wasted journeys in the car, and I found quite a few things around the house that were easily switched off.

Even though the petrol strike was talked up, locally I saw no panic and nothing to the extent of the fuel blockades in 2000.

That was of course very different in scale, but this time I sensed a slight difference of attitude, a sort of patience, albeit a grudging one, from the public.

I’m no green campaigner, but I’m wondering if the scarcity and high price of fuel is turning us, by default, into environmentalists - not so much saving the planet as saving ourselves from the expense of our previously pampered lives. Can we make do with less?

As the summer comes, could our offices, for example have slightly less air–conditioning? Could you really share more journeys in the car. Check on all those stand-bys you don’t need? My parents’ generation assiduously switched everything off last thing at night. My mother made a dress out of a blackout curtain in the days after the Second World War - I’m not suggesting that degree of make and mend, but a bit of austerity might be healthy for the national wallet.

Any  suggestions?

Comments

[Steve Lockhart 22 Jun 2008 15:45:22]

Why isn't this government pushing policies through to reduce this countries dependence on foreign power and fuel sources. We could develope 'clean coal technology' develope nuclear, solar, wind and wave systems at a much faster rate that we are at present. You only have to watch the discovery channel to see the potential and ideas.If this government were really interested in such progress they could quite easily provide real incentives to scientists and inventors. But it appears to me that this chancellor/prime minister hybrid that we have is playing us for fools. He is not worried one iota about the high fuel price, because on every single drop of any type of fuel that is sold, the government rake in a pile of tax revenue. So the longer he carries on appearing to do something about high fuel costs, and patronise us by say how much he understands the peoples problems, the better for him. The higher the price of fuel/power the more tax he gets by percentage, to help repay the massive debt he created for the country. Even now instead of reducing our dependence on foreign countries for power, he is apparently talking with forein powers to invest in the development of alternative sources of power in this country. All this will do is replace our dependence on foreign oil with dependence on foreign owned nuclears power stations. We already get our electricity from the French (nuclear) and our gas from the scandinavian block,wind power as well (ion). We are a great country full of brilliant and hard working people, why have our governments turned us into a people who can't develope industries, manufacture or develope ideas anymore. We need to be able to feed ourselves, power our nation ourselves and look after ourselves. Come on politicians GET A GRIP

[Gerry, N.Ireland 17 Jun 2008 10:28:25]

I totally agree with suggestions made on this blog, However there is one thing that really annoys me, i am a small company owner and have to drive quite a lot with my job, i pay my taxes like everyone else,but the thing that annoys me most of all, and it seems to be overlooked and excepted, is the EXTORTIONATE tax which the government puts on fuel (67% plus), and as if thats not bad enough they then charge us VAT not just on the cost of the fuel but on the tax they place on the fuel too... If the government were to cut fuel tax by 35%, bring fuel prices under £1 per Ltr would this not send a positive message to the business community and the country in general and in turn bring some stability to the economy????

[michael wilson 16 Jun 2008 14:37:49]

robert..what an interesting thought..but remember we've had some of the pain removed because the dollar has been cheap..but the funny thing is that the fall in demand after the oil shock of the 1970's was a direct consequence of comsumers reacting to prices which were too high.
i have no idea what the 'luxury' premium on our consumption is, but even if it were just 1%, it would make a huge difference.
michael..interesting that your beach was empty.

[Tim Thornton Wicklow Ireland 16 Jun 2008 14:04:17]

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign that was going around. The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't
continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT,whoever
thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place
not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not
purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!!

Now, don't wimp out at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the
message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and
pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... ..

THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt,
all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8days!!! Acting together we can make a difference . If this makes
sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 1.000c a LITRE RANGE

It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons Jet etc. i.e. boycott BP and Esso

[Michael Cornwall 16 Jun 2008 11:45:49]

I missed the blog on Friday,an unfamiliar feeling called pessure of workload. I completely agree with what was said that small businesses would be hit. An instant reaction was it was very quiet over the weekend people not making the unnecessary journey in case petrol is needed for emergency. The beach was quiet. I have found no support for the tanker drivers because of the the ammount they already earn. I heard you briefly on the news saying America has done ok in the last month retail figures up. I still think of the article Emma wrote a while ago about the tax rebate asking what we would do, I said blow it. Could Emma do a follow up on USA approach low interest rates and the tax rebate please. I would be most interested.

[Khalid 16 Jun 2008 11:35:32]

Sir
A very good morning to you and I hope you enjoyed your fathers' day as much as any could, under such extreme of circumtsances.
Have you noted a fresh breeze coming from across europe as we walk on by or ride our bike?
Just imagine no congestion charge, no 75% vat on fuel, no road rage, no slime etc etc.
But seriously, when I used to do private driving, the only people I shared my car with were trusted friends as many will tell you, people promise to help, but somehow found an excuse to fall out a day before pay day!
I think your suggestions are to be wholly applauded, and in many a case already adopted, however, insofar as the matter in question, ie the fuel dispute, then it is plainly obvious that Hoyer get circa 35% per quota more than what they part with, and I cannot for a moment justify the strike action, for two very obvious reasons!
(1) Loss of wage...Unless you can afford it in the first place.
(2) Do you want public support or not?
Now, having made an impact upon many a life and got the message across, people have been taken for a ride for the past 10 years, and I dont think this will go down to well.
If drivers are so disturbed by their wage, and have endured it since 1992 as claimed, then by all counts the wage and benefits cannot have been as severe as claimed, otheriwse the leader of the strike would not be getting more than his followers. (45K as reported)
The industry needs to put together a package that fits all grades of drivers, and no doubt added benefits will be provided by those to those who do the job, reach the target and come back for more. So, that' just about the [Gravity Of Love] whilst this [Enigma] continues.

[Robert, Scotland 16 Jun 2008 11:29:30]

If we turned into conservationists overnight and reduced oil/petrol consumption by 10% then oil prices would fall, natural gas would follow. This would lead to us steadily increasing consumption again so, we would stoke up prices again.
Oil prices can be brought down by another route, I do not see them ever coming below $100 a barrel but the volatility can be removed. This route is to stop the lunatic use of the $ for the price benchmark. The US economy to paraphrase, is a "basket economy". America is the biggest debtor nation in the world. If Japan and China were to surrender their $ holdings overnight the US dollar would struggle to compete with the Zimbabwean currency.
We will all adjust to the inevitable high price of oil, but world markets will remain volatile until some sensible currency like the Euro is used as the benchmark for world oil prices.