Oh Mighty Lord, Give Us Cheap Fuel!

[Amadeus]

"Prayer at the Pump"

 

WASHINGTON (AFP) — At a Shell gas station in Washington, Rocky Twyman and an unusual group of activists were mad as hell about soaring fuel prices.

 

"Last week, this station was 3.51 dollars. Now it's practically 3.60. So it's gone up nine cents in one week," Twyman said as he pumped five dollars' worth of gas into his thirsty American car.

 

"Someone's making a lot of money and it's really, really wrong," added Twyman, who founded the Prayer at the Pump movement last week to seek help from a higher power to bring down fuel prices, because the powers in Washington haven't.

 

The half-dozen activists -- Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen -- joined hands, bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer.

 

"Lord, come down in a mighty way and strengthen us so that we can bring down these high gas prices," Twyman said to a chorus of "amens".

 

"Prayer is the answer to every problem in life... We call on God to intervene in the lives of the selfish, greedy people who are keeping these prices high," Twyman said on the gas station forecourt in a neighborhood of Washington that, like many of its residents, has seen better days.

 

"Lord, the prices at this pump have gone up since last week. We know that you are able, that you have all the power in the world," he prayed, before former beauty queen Rashida Jolley led the group in a modified version of the spiritual, "We Shall Overcome".

 

"We'll have lower gas prices, we'll have lower gas prices..." they sang.

 

At the weekend, Twyman had led a group of around 200 people in prayer at pumps in San Francisco, where gas is touching the four-dollars-a-gallon mark.

 

 

 

I hereby immediately announce a local chapter of this most worthy religious movement. First service will be on Sunday at 11am at the Brown Bobby station - anyone got a priest we could borrow ?

[Chinahand]

[Mutley]

[The Old Git]

WASHINGTON (AFP) — At a Shell gas station in Washington, Rocky Twyman and an unusual group of activists were mad as hell about soaring fuel prices..

 

Hey, I feel their pain. I'm just driving Route 66 at the moment and it's costing over $100 to fill up each time. Mind you, it is some stupid big SUV with no doubt a huge engine in it. It's still a lot cheaper than back home though. Let's hope it makes the Yanks reconsider their love of big cars.

[Pat Ayres]

My ploy to protest against prices, as the stations state they make nothing from the sale of fuel, is to fill up £1 at a time. If they don't allow that small amount, as small as possible. That guarantees they don't make a profit because of the costs in issuing receipts etc. I only do this if I have the time but it does annoy the hell out of them.

As for praying for cheap fuel, they surely are deluded.

[manshimajin]

Let's hope it makes the Yanks reconsider their love of big cars.

 

Is it just the Yanks? I get the distinct impression that European cars have been sneakily dosed on steroids over a number of years.

 

Look at modern cars against their older counterparts the so-called 'Mini', the Fiat 500, the 3-series BMW, Golf, Land Rover, Toyota/Lexus - I saw the new Citroen Berlingo being announced as bigger than the previous model.

 

So as the roads get more crowded the cars get bigger - because (the mantra of the school-run 4WD) we feel safer in them. Are we all secretly American at heart?

[Pat Ayres]

Diesel up 2p overnight? WTF is going on?

[The Old Git]

Let's hope it makes the Yanks reconsider their love of big cars.

 

Is it just the Yanks? I get the distinct impression that European cars have been sneakily dosed on steroids over a number of years.

 

I'm seeing 4 and 5 litre plus pickups as a matter of course over here at the moment. The may be a few 4 litre plus cars in the UK / Europe but they're probably the exception rather than the rule. Speaking to some Yanks about fuel prices it is beginning to hurt them or at least make them take notice of prices and fuel economy.

[Pat Ayres]

Another 2p since my last post, someone is taking the piss.