Blogs May 26, 2010 at 10:10 am

Comments

1
I remember when the Exxon Valdez disaster happened, the huge boycott against Exxon drove that company out of business.

Oh wait, that never happened...
2
doesn't BP operate gas stations under a number of different names?

@1 Good point.
3
How about driving less?
4
Boycotting BP is a totally useless gesture.

This spill happened on a BP rig, but it could have just as easily happened on a rig run by any other oil company. We allow oil rigs, and we don't regulate them enough. If it wasn't BP, it would have been someone else.

Boycotting one oil company doesn't reduce the overall demand for oil. If you boycott BP, and buy your gas from ARCO or Exxon, the demand for oil remains the same.

The only effective boycott is to reduce your consumption, regardless of where you buy your gas, and encourage others to do the same. Drive less, carpool, bike, transit, or drive higher MPG cars.

Buy locally produced and grown products. Buy Kirkland water instead of Fiji water (if you must buy water at all). Buy local strawberries instead of strawberries shipped from 1000 miles away. A huge amount of oil is consumed just shipping crap all over the place.
5
I hereby vow that if I ever get a car I won't buy gas for it at BP. Around here, no station is actually called "BP" except one in Bremerton - navvies take note.

Locally, BP sells through ARCO stations and AM/PMs.

http://www.bp.com/toolserver/heliospower…
6
you are wrong. many americans, particularly those (90%) who supported invading iraq, do not give a fuck, and half of those who would give a fuck are too lazy to remember.

and there are no BPs around here, anyway.
7
All consumption of consumer petroleum products is destroying our planet, not just oil pumped by BP. There are no benevolent petroleum companies.
8
There is no "BP gas". It all goes into the global market, and then gets mixed together in refineries.

Also, most of the fuel in this area goes through a pipe line currently managed by BP. So good luck with that. If, somehow, you managed to find fuel that didn't come through that pipe line, it came via tanker in Puget Sound, and diesel truck. Both of those are more polluting during normal operation than the pipe line.

Until we stop driving cars, we're all at fault. Easier to fix your own behavior than a global corporation's.
10
@4: Better to stop buying bottled water at all, unless you live somewhere without clean tap water. Otherwise, what you said.
11
My ideal situation would be one in which people reflect on this disaster and choose to reduce their oil consumption, coupled with the public, televised executions of BP's board of directors, as an example to the others.
12
I just came here to say what @4 said. It happened to BP, but it could have happened to any of the big oil companies. It's not like their practices are particularly different.

And anyway, let us not forget that it was in fact Halliburton who actually did the shoddy work that directly led to the explosion. Are we going to boycott them, too? They've more or less proven that they're completely invulnerable to public outrage at this point.

This is pointless. Boycott the entire oil paradigm, not just BP.
13
"Buy locally produced and grown products. Buy Kirkland water instead of Fiji water (if you must buy water at all). "

WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
14
@13, Kirkland water is produced locally. Fiji water is shipped from Fiji (duh). How much oil do you think it takes to ship water from Fiji?

Buying water is usually dumb. But if you must buy water, think of where it comes from.
15
Yes, but it's BP that refuses to do whatever it takes to stop the leak because they're too fucking greedy to give up that oil. Certainly, no other oil company would behave differently, but BP is the one currently pulling this shit and deserves to be punished.
16
Contacting the large-cap mutual fund companies that your employer's 401(k) utilizes and demanding that they stop buying BP stock would likely be far more effective, and it should be an easy call since BP's YTD performance is nearly as catastrophic as the spill.
17
From what I understand many places just buy the lowest costing fuel. What I want is for congress to kick BP out of our country, if not all their current projects than never again should the company as currently operating be allowed more business in this country. Give the work to a company willing to invest in technology to prevent this from happening. I'd love to think that because I give some other horrible oil company profits from my 5 gallons of gas I buy a month that I'd make some kind of statement about my dollars. But when you expand just how much of our lives run on oil, wouldn't it be way better to break our attiction from the black gunk destroying our gulf of oil? I want BP to suffer just as much as the next person with a brain in their head, but I'd rather see them share a jail cell with charles manson and make a reality show about it.
18
@4,7,8,12 It isn't true that all oil companies are the same, have a look at the following:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/…

From the article:

Top OSHA officials told the Center in an interview that BP was cited for more egregious willful violations than other refiners because it failed to correct the types of problems that led to the 2005 Texas City accident even after OSHA pointed them out. In Toledo, problems were corrected in one part of the refinery but went unaddressed in another. Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, said it was clear that BP “didn’t go nearly far enough” to correct deficiencies after the 2005 blast.

“The only thing you can conclude is that BP has a serious, systemic safety problem in their company,” Barab said.
19
@15

Are you on crack?

I think they ARE doing what they can to stop the spill. Do you think it's in their best interest to let the spill continue so they can "get the oil" as you say? If so, you're delirious. Give us one sensible reason why you think BP would be interested in letting oil continue to spill into the gulf. Its a PR nightmare, it's destroying the environment and people's lives, and no, I doubt they're benefiting more from oil gushing from a broken pipe than they would from an intact well.

Please, please think before you speak. I know it's hard, but try. Also, I really hope you don't vote.
20
Boycot BP! Buy instead from one of the oil companies that... isn't destroying the planet. Crap. Does anybody have a list?

Instead of letting my money do the talking, I think I'll let my feet do the walking.
21
I'm posting to add my voice to the chorus: it's not just BP, it's oil. If you aren't doing anything to change your consumption of oil, then you're part of the problem. And really, even those of us who are trying to use less oil are still a problem as long as we use any at all.

All of the oil companies should be forbidden from offshore drilling immediately. Every one should be investigated for negligence. We can start with BP because their culpability is clear, but if we end there we won't have accomplished a damn thing.
22
Gas from a BP/Arco/AMPM pump is just the tip of the iceberg. Almost every consumer product you use contains some sort of petrochemical (e.g. plastic) which likely came from BP and was shipped to you using fuel which very likely came from BP.
23
What Charles alluded to in his earlier post (remember, he likes to take the long way around, in most cases) is that this is similar to Three Mile Island and the paradigm shift away from nuclear power. I agree that the Gulf Oil Spill could refocus everyone to alternate forms of power, and the use of less power - not just a boycott of a particular oil producer.
24
@4 nailed it. There is nothing more to be said.
25
I passed up the BP station I usually buy from yesterday. The most important thing I'm getting out of this is to change my oil furnace over to a geothermal unit. I bought one two years ago on ebay but couldn't find anyone local to install it so I gave up. I have a quote for digging the wells and it ain't cheap but now I know its worth the 12 grand to switch it over so I'll start calling HVAC outfits again.
26
@4 I'll stick with my California strawberries, thank you very much. You can have the smaller, less sweet Puyallup variety.
27
While you are boycotting BP and/or other oil companies, make sure you stop buying plastic, certain household chemicals, synthetic fibers, etc.

I'm not on the oil companies' side (though honestly, part of me is conflicted about that because oil brings so much money and so many jobs into my state - Louisiana). I think we do need to reduce our consuption of petroleum as a society, But boycotting gas companies a lone isn't going to do a heck of a lot when oil is used for so manyother thing.
28
If boycotting oil companies doesn't work, then why do oil companies buy ads asking you to buy their gas? Why do these companies do public relations if they make the same amount of money no matter how much you hate them?

It seems to me if it makes no difference which gas you buy, then they would either not advertise at all, or else they would make ads that just try to get you to drive more instead of telling you their gas is better than everyone else's gas.

I can believe they care about nothing except profits. But if they care about nothing but profits, then why waste money on ads and PR unless it increases profits?
29
If you use the trolley bus lines or the light rail in our city, you're kicking BP in the crotch.

Keep doing it.
30
I said it's a start. a BP boycott would be largely symbolic. but the symbolic should not be underestimated.
31
facebook petitions always work well against oil companies.

this shits not shaking any corporate foundations. if you believe that youre fond of believing your own wishful thinking. like every fucking catastrophe related to vast sums of cash, no rational reform will change the fucking endless supply of asshole fucking dicks. its the bedrock of the whole fucking global economy, it's not changing.
32
I'll stick with my California strawberries, thank you very much. You can have the smaller, less sweet Puyallup variety.


Philistine. California strawberries taste like nothing. There's a reason why they're almost completely white throughout.
33
Purchasing locally grown does not equal less oil consumption.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4162
34
@19,

No, I'm not on crack, but it seems that you're the one who shouldn't be voting as you are completely and utterly ignorant.

There is a way to stop the leak definitively: blow it up. But if they do that, BP can't get any more oil from that source. They are happily destroying the Gulf and the Gulf Coast to save access to that oil.

Try thinking, period, before you speak or at any other time. Moron.
35
@33 true.

That said, eating locally grown beefalo instead of beef is a wise choice.
36
I will gladly boycott BP. Quick question, though. Does BP control the beer and corndog part of AM/PM? Because then we'd have a problem.
38
@34, I suggested this on the third day of the BP Gulf Oil Disaster, and cited russian news sources as previous examples. I also asked Dr. Science to expand on it. Willis right, taking the trolley and LINK is the best way to cut back on oil consumption. And buy a water filter and a stainless steel water bottle if you must, who (besides my insane boss) buys bottled water?
39
Boycotting BP is stupid. Hearing Sloggers whine about the Gulf is incredibly annoying. John Kerry is right -- there are FORTY EIGHT THOUSAND wells in the Gulf of Mexico, and your entire lifestyle absolutely depends on the commodity they produce. The computer you read Slog on depends on BP petroleum or some other petroleum that demand created by a BP boycott would shift to.

You want to have an impact on oil drilling in the Gulf? Reduce your oil usage by a billion barrels of oil a year (I don't know what BP's share of the ~6 billion barrels consumed a year is, but that sounds close enough). Otherwise, you got nothin' to say. That's YOUR oil washing up on those Louisiana bayous.

I haven't noticed any reduction in traffic on I-5 this month, have you?

The good news is, global oil consumption is going to DOUBLE in the next two decades. And the Gulf is a hugely rich field for that production, especially out in the dangerous deep waters like the BP rig that blew. And that increase isn't coming from the US; most of that doubling would still take place if the US disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow.

Buying bottled fucking water from Kirkland isn't going to have any effect either.
40
http://statistics.allfacebook.com/pages/…

118,000 fans will surely change the world!

In other fuel related FB news, Vin Diesel has 7.79 million fans. Which is just slightly less than Obama. Do you suppose this wave of powerful facebook support will lead to Vin Diesel taking the white house next year?

On a side note... Charles please come back and post on slog 1.5 years from now on this very topic so that we can reflect on what did or did not take place related to all this.

I'd love for you to be correct but I am pretty sure nothing significant will change... Aside from shrimp and oyster yields.

41
@40, you are really undervaluing this catastrophe. it's historic. even basic American stupidity will find it very difficult to overwhelm it. look as the scale. it's all about scale.
42
Oil is a fungible commodity. BP-branded gas stations do not even necessarily sell you BP oil. Even if it were possible for consumers to boycott BP oil, other companies would just buy it from BP.

Near as I can tell, boycotting BP only hurts local service station operators.
43
I used to work for a local big-box company that has opened up gas stations at a lot of its' locations. And I used to work in the gas buying department. The fuel comes from many different places, spot and contract vendors. It could be Tesoro, or BP... You just don't know. Even if you ask the attendants where their gas has come from, they might not know. And it's not like the underground tanks are empty every time a load comes in. There's fuel in there from the last five or six loads. You can boycott BP stations as much as you want to, the gas is still being purchased from them somewhere down the line. It's a nice thought, but it isn't going to change anything.
44
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Poin…

Ah, such a great day to learn how the oil industry works.

#43 says pretty much what I was going to, except for one thing - my family used to be in the business locally, and a majority of the gasoline in WA state comes in via the Cherry Point Refinery which is owned by BP. The wikipedia article has another good statistic, which is that 75% of Seatac's gasoline comes from Cherry Point.

The only way to boycott BP effectively would be to stop driving, stop taking buses, stop flying..... which hey! Pretty awesome if you want to step up and do it! But it's out of reach for most people until we overhaul our transportation infrastructure.
45
"good news is, global oil consumption is going to DOUBLE in the next two decades."

that's called prosperity, millions of Chinese and INdians being lifted out of poverty. We must stop it!
46
Cool, shorter lines at Arco, cheapest gas in town!

"demanding that they stop buying BP stock would likely be far more effective"

I agree, wait until the stock tanks, THEN buy.

"this is similar to Three Mile Island and the paradigm shift away from nuclear power."

I agree, time to ditch oil/coal and build nuclear like Obama said in the SOTU!
47
In the Northwest, BP product is sold by Arco. Hence the Backbone Campaign's Boycott BP/Arco campaign here in Seattle.

Some people complain that this will do nothing to harm BP. Maybe not, however, what else can us ordinary people do to draw attention to this heinous crime? There is not a mechanism yet such as corporate capital punishment though there should be. BP's charter should be revoked for it's continuous string of such crimes and their executives themselves prosecuted for those crimes. Until then see: BOYCOTTBP.ORG
48
In the Northwest, BP product is sold by Arco. Hence the Backbone Campaign's Boycott BP/Arco campaign here in Seattle.

Some people complain that this will do nothing to harm BP. Maybe not, however, what else can us ordinary people do to draw attention to this heinous crime? There is not a mechanism yet such as corporate capital punishment though there should be. BP's charter should be revoked for it's continuous string of such crimes and their executives themselves prosecuted for those crimes. Until then see: BOYCOTTBP.ORG
49
" Hence the Backbone Campaign's Boycott BP/Arco campaign here in Seattle."

That's why I saw that solitary old fart at 99 and 85th freezing his ass off in the rain as I pulled in for gas at $2.85/gall!
50
@everyone who says it won't do any good to boycott BP because all oil companies suck:

I agree that BP probably isn't any worse than any other oil company (although it may be), but I think it is pretty darned reasonable to say to any and all oil companies, "If you fuck up like this because you wanted to save a few dollars rather than be as safe as you could, it's going to hurt you because people will boycott your business in favor of those companies who haven't fucked up."

If oil companies know that people will keep buying from them no matter how badly they screw up, then they have less incentive to keep from screwing up. Give all the oil companies a reason to think twice about risking this kind of disaster. Yes, it's all well and good to try to minimize the amount of oil we use, but let's face, we're all going to use some amount of oil. Use your buying power to send a message.
51
This is real intelligence. Have any of you thought past your nose at the REAL implications of boycotting BP?

You'll not hurt BP, you will however put many people out of work. Those people who live in La. Ms. Tx. that rely on the oilfield to put food on their table. You will put the jobs of 10's of thousands at jeopardy.
Environmentalists scream and complain about birds, fish, and turtles. Forgetting completely of the 11 that died.

How many of you called for or decided to boycott Toyota? Whats the death toll at now? 50+?
How many stopped using coal after the multiple coal mine disasters in the last few years?
Demonstrators here in Houston were parading in front of the cameras 1/2 naked boycotting oil...Wearing plastic crap on their heads as ornaments... Idiots.. where do you think the plastic came from to make those head ornaments?

I could go on for days bringing up the issues you have never thought of.... But, no matter how many I lay out, as to why this is the wrong way about fixing anything, your blind ignorance will keep you from seeing reality.
52
Drill, baby, Drill.

Please wait...

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