Shell vs.The Environment & The Public Trust

Shell's "Win a Million Gallons Campaign" is an attempt to distract its customers from the truth. Now that the American public can no longer actually afford gasoline they are expected to be happy trying to "win it." What a callous disregard and abuse of consumer pain. Buying gasoline shouldn't become a "state lottery" for the poor. Gasoline prices can be cheaper. They just need to be more competitive. There is plenty of room for price competition between the oil company's refining cost and the wholesale price, that is where the record profits come from. 

SeeitReal.com advocates changes in the gasoline retailing industry. If Shell and other oil companies can shed their environmental responsibilities by selling off their franchise service stations in mass, including land, buildings and equipment, the public should be able to introduce the changes necessary to re-introduce competition in gasoline retailing. In California, there are "propositions" that allow voters to make laws in California that lawmakers are either too weak to sign or are bought off by industry via campaign contributions. 

What is needed are ways to introduce more competition into a growing gasoline monopoly. Therefore, SeeitReal.com proposes legislation by California lawmakers or by a voter directed proposition that does away with any retailer penalty in any long-term product agreement by any oil company. Just like the ones Shell is using to sell its stations to its retailers in order to get rid of the environmental liability yet maintain the benefit of selling its product through its retailers. Necessary competition would be introduced if every oil company had to compete to sell its gasoline through every independent retail outlet via its wholesale price. Guaranteed product delivery agreements could be entered into, but the penalty of switching brands should be eliminated so any retailer could enter into any product agreement he wants to with any oil supplier at any time. This would be one effective way to deal with the stranglehold major oil has on distribution in California and the rest of the United States.

 Re-Introducing Competition

The worst thing just happened to the price of gasoline in America, major oil companies found out just how "inelastic" demand for gasoline in America really is. They never suspected that they could sell as much as they did in the last year at such a high price. The almost complete lack of competition has made this even worse. What we need to do is to support any and all measures that can re-introduce competition into the gasoline manufacturing, refining and retailing industry. We need to be ever vigilant in exposing non-competitive business practices, no mater how benign they may look, and pass legislation that makes the major oil companies compete again for the business they complacently expect and even legally demand by penalizing their retailers for seeking lower wholesale pricing that can be passed on to consumers. Shell's penalty under their "10 Year Product Agreement" is a non-competitive measure meant to lock their retailers into Shell's higher pricing. Shell should have to compete on price like anyone else. By selling its stations, Shell has already captured its investment. There is no reason to have the penalty other than to uncompetitively lock their retailers into non-competitive agreements. Let's eliminate those types of self-serving uncompetitive agreements in the oil industry and mandate that retailers can shop suppliers for the lowest price in order to benefit their customers and the public at large in any manner and at any time they so choose. If the public can't shop for lower gas prices, let the retailers do it for us. "One small step for the consumer, one giant step for lower gasoline prices." Why shouldn't it be at the expense of the oil company when they are getting rich doing nothing abut high prices and the pain it causes America? Taxes can work, but have hidden agendas. Competition and lower prices works best for all concerned. It helps the people that need it the most, the customers.

 California Proposition

With your support, SeeitReal.com will write a proposition to re-introduce "Competitive Justice" into the next available election in California. There is no reason why the major oil companies should only get it their way in the distribution and pricing of gasoline in America. Monopolistic high prices do not allocate gasoline. They only take advantage of the high inelasticity of gasoline demand. It is the lack of competition that needs to be re-introduced by any means possible into gasoline retailing. Service stations no longer compete with each other, only oil companies do. There is very little of that as the gasoline retailing market has reached maturity. There are just so many outlets and those are allocated to the "American Oil Monopoly/Cartel." The only way to break this "cartel" is to allow the members to take points of distribution from the other members via lower wholesale pricing. SeeitReal.com advocates making it illegal to lock independent retailers into long term product agreements that use penalties in order to keep retailers from branding with another oil company offering a lower delivery price. The long term contract is good for the retailer, but the penalty isn't. If Shell is selling all their service stations  anyway, there is no reason for an additional penalty to the retailer - after they already paid the highest possible price for their location. It is time to stop letting the oil companies have their cake and eat it too. The rape of the American economy by the major oil companies via high gasoline prices and obscene profits has to end. Let the oil companies compete for the limited number of service stations every day and not just every ten years. That's competition. A "Ten Year Product Agreement" with penalties isn't.