FRESNO, Calif. – Some angry consumers are preparing to stage a gasoline boycott on May 15 to protest skyrocketing prices, which would cost the oil companies $2.2 billion in lost revenues and be suitable revenge for gasoline prices that are approaching $4 a gallon, reports the Fresno Bee.

However, there is a slight problem, which is that gasoline boycotts don't work, writes the newspaper, adding that drivers can make an impact by significantly reducing overall consumption by using carpooling or mass transportation.

Even if every driver in America participated in a one-day boycott, it wouldn’t be effective and could cause prices to rise, NACS spokesman Jeff Lenard told the newspaper.

“As much as it seems like a good idea, it’s really not going to improve things and could make things significantly worse if they [consumers] were to follow these boycotts,” said Lenard.

Furthermore, in the case of a one-day boycott, drivers would fill up either the day before or the day after.

“Buying gasoline one day versus another day of the week is not likely to change [overall] demand,” Ron Planting, an economist with the American Petroleum Institute said to the Fresno Bee.

An e-mail chain that encourages drivers not to buy Exxon or Mobil fuel says that the boycott would force the company to lower prices, and other companies would follow. However, boycotting a single company is not effective, said Lenard, noting that only 2.4 percent of U.S. gasoline stations are owned and operated by large oil companies, and sites are independently owned have contracts to sell a certain type of gasoline.

A gasoline boycott could, however, hurt retailers – not the oil companies. Santokh Dhillon, who owns an Arco station in Fresno, said he doesn’t like high gasoline prices any more than his customers, and that his profit is between 3 percent and 5 percent of that price. “We want to sell a 50-cent gallon,” he said to the Fresno Bee. “If you sell a 50-cent gallon, you sell more gallons.”