11-19-07 by dugan
Monterey, Calif., gas station owner Mehdi Shahbazi died last week at 65 after a 90-day hunger strike against Shell Oil. He’d been fighting the company for years over the company’s actions against his Shell-branded station, his lack of free speech concerning Shell, and the high price of gasoline overall.
The photo above tells some of the story. The Monterey Herald has a news obituary. And Oilwatchdog’s "Insider" gets to the real heart of the matter below.
"While his reaction was more extreme, Mr. Shabaz is like thousands of independent Shell dealers who were clobbered when the company decided to expand its control over its service stations. In the late 90’s, Shell increased its rents to its dealers and used the cover of zone pricing to raise the wholesale price to the targeted dealers, so they could not compete with the nearby and usually brand-new Shell station operated by the company itself.
"It was economic eviction, pure and simple."
And here’s a more politically minded 2005 story on Shahbazi from the Monterey County weekly, at a time when he still thought he might beat Big Oil in court and even spark a consumer revolt.
A web site with the tales of more Shell dealers, called shellscrewedme.com, is MIA these days on the web.