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Boycott BP
Why?
Because BP must pay.
Eleven oil workers are dead. One of the largest oil spills in U.S.
history continues to worsen. BP's oil gusher at the floor of the Gulf of
Mexico may be 100 times worse than BP first estimated (and 20 times
worse than the company presently claims). 100 times!
BP's oil gusher is now threatening coastal lands in Louisiana and is almost certain to destroy fisheries and the livelihoods of people who fish and shrimp in the Gulf, or rely on the Gulf for tourism business. The giant plumes of oil deep underwater will exact an unknown toll on sea life. And the spreading oil may even wind up in currents that eventually take it to the U.S. Eastern shores.
BP CEO Tony Hayward is sanguine about the whole problem. The Financial Times quotes him saying, "I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest."
A boycott will send a message to BP that its shoddy oversight of this project and its history of environmental and worker safety violations is unforgivable. Take the BP Boycott Pledge, and commit not to buy gas from BP for at least three months. Go here: www.beyondBP.org
BP cares desperately about its public image. This is the company that has sought to rebrand itself as "Beyond Petroleum." BusinessWeek estimates the BP brand as worth $3.9 billion -- the highest among oil companies. "Not even an Alaskan oil spill or an explosion at a Texas refinery has put a dent in BP's strong [brand] performance," said BusinessWeek in 2006. This time must be different. A boycott will express the organized consumer anger that BP so fears.
This is a company that should fear the public's wrath, for the Deepwater Horizon blowout was a preventable disaster. While much remains unknown, there is mounting evidence that BP could have averted the catastrophe. BP made a conscious decision not to install a $500,000 safety device that could have prevented the blowout. There is good reason to believe BP's contractors on the Deepwater Horizon made multiple mistakes leading up to the disaster, but it is ultimately BP's job to make sure its contractors are exercising sufficient care. And Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon, told 60 Minutes that BP pressured its contractors to skirt other safety measures that might have prevented the disaster.
All this from a company that made $14 billion in profits in 2009 -- a bad year. First quarter profits in 2010 were over $6 billion.
After the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, Tony Hayward reportedly asked why bad things keep happening to BP.
But this is not a case of bad things happening to good people. BP has one of the worst environmental and safety records of any oil company operating in the United States. BP has pled guilty in just the last few years to two crimes and paid more than $730 million in fines, penalties and settlements for environmental crimes, willful disregard for workplace safety and energy market manipulation.
BP sometimes says it will pay for the harms caused by the spill, but at other times hedges what it may be willing to do. There will be litigation and fines, and BP won't have the final say on what it wants to pay. In any case, cash compensation for economic harms caused -- while necessary -- doesn't bring back destroyed ecosystems and does little to mitigate the company's culpability for not preventing the blowout in the first place.
The only good that can come out of the BP disaster is if it forces the United States to fundamentally reorient energy policy. As a matter of simple common sense, the Obama administration should reverse its new policy and stop offshore drilling expansion. More fundamentally, BP's oil gusher is yet another reminder of the need for a massive shift away from fossil fuels and to investments in efficiency and renewable energy. The disaster also emphasizes how crucial it is to hold Big Oil accountable. The BP boycott is a way to start.
There are no "good" oil companies, but BP is a particularly bad and
irresponsible actor. Consumers should make it pay. Take the BP Boycott
Pledge:
Comments
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124 Comments so far
Show AllPledge to not buy gas from BP for 3 months ... what!?!?!?
BOYCOTT PLUS!
SUPERSIZE BOYCOTT!
BOYCOTT period! No time limit. Put them out of business. They deserve nothing less.
They do deserve more however. How about JAIL for those responsible for making any decision relating to the Gulf disaster. That just may include some people in government and government agencies along with BP, Halliburton and Transocean.
That's unlikely to happen. It'll probably turn out like the bankster and Wall Street gangster creative destruction of our country, only to be bailed out on the threat of furthering the destructive forces and then profitting immensely from both sides of the fence.
Ok I tried. I clicked the blue words and the site did not come up. The response was "no documents match..."
Which gas stations have BP gas? Is their name on the building? If it is we don't have them in the northeast unless they go by another name.
We have them in Pennsylvania. I will never knowingly ever make another purchase of a BP provided product. They make more than gasoline, folks. Boycott ALL of their products.
From www.bp.com
BP comprises a number of internationally recognized and respected brands: BP, ARCO, ampm, Aral and Castrol.
We use the BP and Amoco brand names in the USA east of the Rocky Mountains and ARCO to the west. We have kept the Aral name for use in Germany.
In North America, we are the second largest fuels' marketer, with its Amoco Ultimate gasoline providing the highest premium grade ratio.
BP also operates the "bp connect" and "Wild Bean Cafe" convenience stores.
The high-performance engineering polymers portfolio to be sold includes the full span of BP Amoco's world-class line of thermoplastics and speciality polymers, known by the brand names of Udel, Radel, Amodel, Xydar, Torlon, and Kadel. BP Amoco's engineering polymers have applications in the automotive, aerospace, industrial, medical and electronics industries, among others.
___________________-
Okay. Lots of brand names to boycott, found not just at BP gas stations. Look for the BP logo or other information on the package that shows BP is the manufacturer.
I wouldn't buy a quart of Castrol. But the idea of castor oil as a local small-scale enterprise is excellent. Castor oil is the best engine lubricant on the planet. It's far better than petro-gunk. You can get a group of people together and contract with a local small farmer to produce a gallon of castor oil for each per year. If you use more than that you're probably driving too much. Oh and don't eat the castor beans.
When I was a kid some asshole doctor told my mother to give me a teaspoon of castor oil daily. I never knew why. I was very young, maybe two years old, but that is one of the traumatic things a kid will remember all his life. I finally won out. My mother got tired of the kicking and screaming. I finally had to go at her like a rabid cat and I think she just had enough. Don't eat the castor beans indeed.
How funny. Castor oil daily: you're right, your doctor was an asshole. But castor our in coordination with Gerson Diatetics is a wonderful health aid...many times life extending as well as life enhancing.
>>
There will be litigation and fines, and BP won't have the final say on what it wants to pay.
<<
Thanks for the laugh.
Consider me on the lifetime boycott list.
Along with Chevron and Exxon.
We can take them down one at a time.
If we were in a distant Latin American country, like Ecuador, BP would expect to get away with this and continue making profits, like Chevron/Toxico. Maybe this marine holocaust will cause America to wake up to a story that's been around for quite some time. It was brought up by John Perkins in his e-newsletter this morning:
http://www.oilwatchmesoamerica.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2000&Itemid=78
On CD too:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/15
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/07-5
Boycott all gasoline.
We need to move away from fossil fuels in general. They are destroying the planet and causing global warming.
Electric vehicles may really be running on coal.
We need to invest in renewable energy, not war.
End all US wars. End our military outposts around the world. Eliminate the CIA. That's where the money is--the military machine sucks about 60 percent of the US budget. It must end and we must move away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy, more efficiency, less consumption, and greater energy efficiency.
End the military and retool for a future to be possible!
Bicycle paths, green belts, parks and pedestrian-only zones for walking, federal subsidies only to solar, wind, hemp, algae. When I think of my wish list, I always wonder about horse & buggy. Is that just too unrealistic? You see them in tourist areas of cities, like downtown around the riverwalk here in San Antonio. Since downtown streets are sometimes one way, alternating directions every other street, couldn't we have horse and buggy only streets in between car streets? I imagine that it would lead to so many new small horse transportation businesses displacing giant multinational energy corporations, and more veterinary jobs, and green spaces for the horses to graze on. There would be jobs for people to collect the horse manure and sell it to gardeners.
One place I visited, I saw a guy with a 2-passenger rickshaw. His price was 10.00 per hour, which seemed really low to me, compared to what limo companies charge. When I saw him, people were all around him, wanting to hire him, but he already had two little old ladies as his clients for that whole day. They were inside a museum and he was resting.
We got a lot of sidewalks and biking paths in VA Beach even when some of the anti-tax zealots complained about sidewalks and bicycle paths costing taxpayers. In warm and congenial weather, bikes and hose buggies can be great.
Boycott all fossil fuels. And nuclear. Only one way to do that- get off the energy tit.
Oh joyous rapture, I'm feelin' better already. Such welcome news on the heals of Don Blankenship's affirmation of his company's ongoing dedication to worker safety and environmental responsibility. I felt so good with all of this that I went outside and threw up on the cat.
The BP just up the road here seems in the habit of starving the operators/lessees of their operation. BP put up a shiny new sign but most of the card readers at the pumps quit working years ago and haven't been fixed, there are no paper towels or windshield washing fluid at the islands, and I swear that several of their pumps should be investigated by the County Auditor for incorrect readings.
There are BP's all over here. It will be inconvenient, but I'll boycott. Other options I've considered over the years would not be smiled upon by Nepolitano's minions.
On US 5 in California from the Oregon border south, at just about every town, are these choices, Arco (BP),) Shell, Exxon, or Chevron, sometimes a Valero or a 76 (Conoco-Phillips);
Are there any sustainable, green, socially conscious, oil companies? (that's not a serious question because I know the answer).
exxon owns valero, use citgo if you can- its socialist gas/ Venezuela ... its tough tho;
Right, I've used Citgo for the past several years, convincing myself the money is going to the people of Venezuela rather than to a handful of billionaires. I don't know if I'm right or not, but every two weeks or so when I'm forced to buy gas my ever-socialist heart feels better.
The original question is legit --- are there any oil companies less reprehensible than others? Even a safety history that looks better?
I've said this before, but again, we need to look to Cuba to see what a post-oil future looks like and how to make the best of it. But what a waste of time --- there's no way Americans will be foresighted enough or altruistic enough to do anything other than drown in their own arrogance. (If I could give Cubans some advice, I'd say close their borders, so to speak ---- we may all want to be in Cuba if the worst happens.)
In the meantime, calls for individual sacrifice are naive at best and annoyingly condescending at worst; if we don't approach these problems as a country, we are in serious trouble.
"there's no way Americans will be foresighted enough or altruistic enough to do anything other than drown in their own arrogance." True enough. That the species will ultimately "drown in it's own arrogance", seems to be hardwired into our DNA. We're not even making token gestures toward the sorts of changes that might save us from a truly gruesome end.
"(If I could give Cubans some advice, I'd say close their borders, so to speak ---- we may all want to be in Cuba if the worst happens.)" True again. Even now the southern tide is beginning to reverse. A veritable wave of retired/retiring Americans are moving to Mexico--not least because health care is actually affordable there. I'm not sure it would be advised for the younger generations though; things are going to start going down hill fast fairly soon, and they will get bad in the poorer countries first.
I think you may be mistaken that Exxon owns Valero. Valero bought out Diamod Shamrock and is an independant refiner located in San Antonio, Texas. They have a unique refining process that utilizes the lower grades of crude oil.
I do agree with patronizing Citgo. The profits made by this company go mainly back into Venezuela's society and are used to fund schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. Of course that's the very reason Hugo Chavez is so demonized here in America. He has established a socialistic government that works for the people rather than a small group of elite ultra rich pigs, and as such, the U.S. must label him a communist dictator in order for him to be demonized by the American public. After all, if the American people saw that the people of Venezuela are happier than most here in the U.S., the American people would demand a similar system that treats them like human beings rather that consumer slaves. My daughers actually were telling me one night last week how evil Chavez is, and I asked them why they felt that way. The said that had read mothing but bad about him in the newspapers and hear nothing but bad on the MSM. When I told them what Chavez actually did for the Venezuelan people, they changed their mind very quickly and learned once again that they cannot trust what their government ot press tell them. Upon returning to class, one of them spoke with their political science professor and he told them basically the same thing I did.
On a side note, both of my daughters begin college this past year at Texas State University (used to be Southwest Texas State University), a fairly progressive school when it comes to politics. On the first day of classes, they were given a poll asking whether they considered themselves politically conservative or liberal. Both said they view their policial ideals as progressive, and noted along side the poll question that they wouldn't be caught dead as conservatives. It not only made me proud and feel as if all of the things I have harped about during the Bu$h administration and how the republicans and blue dog democrats in congress have been basically nothing but obstuctionists toward anything Obama tried to pass, progressive or not as well as pathetic liars and frauds. The now view the republikkkan party as the party of self but also have a dismal view of the democratis party as it has become sice Clinton.
Polls of the millenial generation also show that a majority (51%) of this generation also would prefer socialism over capitalism economically and believe that it is our duty as people to help our less fortunate members of society live a confortable life instead of being at the mercy of heartless and selfish greedpigs and that thhe financial industry and corporations should be heavily regulated by government to protect the environment as well as the consumers. It may just be that this generation just now coming of age may be the light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
While most young folks seem to be progressive, few seem to remain that way once they reach middle age--at least in the 'red states.' Interesting to be sure.
"After all, if the American people saw that the people of Venezuela are happier than most here in the U.S., the American people would demand a similar system that treats them like human beings rather that consumer slaves"
I'm concerned about USans, but really I'm more concerned about the targeted victims outside the USA, the other 6.5 billion they are trying to herd into the same corral with the USans. Trying to terminate their seeds, destroy their ability to think, replace their reverence for their natural heritage.
On the first day of classes, they were given a poll asking whether they considered themselves politically conservative or liberal.
I would not have answered the question. I'm onboard with most everything else in your comment.
Boycott BP, use a different criminal.
Weissman, what is a boycott of BP going to do??
Journalism sucks in America.
They should be the ones leading Americans to boycott
our addiction to oil.
Only use vehilcles for absolute neccessity,
like back and forth to work and the food store, period.
Stay out of you vehicles !!!!!
Throw the cell phones away !!!
Boycott BP reminds me of the progressive rational for
supporting Opama, they wanted change, but not really,
just a "feel good" about myself feeling and that is ALL
a boycott of BP will get you.
If you really want to send a message, boycott consumerism.
Throw you cell phones away, nobody is going to do that
because very few really want a change, just "feel good"
about themselves little somethings.
My cell phone is gone as soon as the contract expires in a couple months. I don't need to be all that accessible anyway.
I have boycotted consumerism for over 50 years! Don't own a cellphone. We are a one vehicle household. We walk or ride our bicycles whenever possible. We only buy what we absolutely need. We try very hard to not buy new if what we have is repairable or used is available for replacement. We don't use much in the way of electricity ... etc ...
If all ordinary people used their money for impact perhaps things would change. It is the best I can do on a daily basis to make my beliefs impact those who are all too willing to abuse ordinary people.
BOYCOTT!
ORGANIZE!
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE NOW!
SOCIAL JUSTICE NOW!
ECONOMIC JUSTICE NOW!
Nice going Sput, me too. I wish more voices here would join in and confirm their changed lifeways. Any other changed people out there in progressive land? If not, why not!
By simply moving out of sunbelt-suburbia to a Pennsylvania city, my car use declined from 20,000 miles to less than 4000 miles - and I would have gotten rid of the car altogether if it weren't for a hang gliding hobby.
Other alternatives are low-cc motor scooters, or electric versions of same.
Not following the standard 'consumerism' path in the U.S. is downright difficult though. Well, especially where we live. Not just that ... it's family and friends/acquaintances that's the hardest. When we are so different in how we approach life and living, when what is important to us doesn't coincide with that of those around us, when it even provokes anger from others, when we are marginalized for not being what is expected ... etc ... it's just damn difficult being a progressive. And, it's a lot of work! That's probably why most people won't come out and play!
But ... I'm not giving an inch.
Funny thing is ... we traveled all over the place, did all kinds of things and lived quite well and still do ... without cellphones and talking constantly about nonsense ... how is it so impossible today for most of the population? It is something I don't understand ... probably never will.
Just how does throwing a cell phone away but still driving your car send a message to BP?
I see nothing wrong with a boycott. Avoid TA when traveling because they are often a BP station.
Boycotts worked in the civil rights movement and against Apartheid. There is one now against Israeli products.
Boycotts need more support, more advertising, and more people promoting them to succeed.
The longer this disaster goes on the angrier I get!
The incompetence and malfeasance is astonishing. I don't know why I continue to be astonished by anything anymore. How do people make it this far in life to reach the epitome of incompetence? They had to have had a lot of experience in high cost destructive decision making heading up to this point ... just like those responsible for the financial weapons of mass destruction. And nobody smacked 'em down along the way!?!??!?
I remember an incident when I was a kid ~5 years old. I loved going out to the neighborhood pond. Just sitting and watching everything that was going on. The fish and frogs, the polliwogs, the snapping turtles, water snakes, salamanders, all the birds and insects ... they simply amazed me. So one day ... I don't know what got into me ... but I caught a bunch ... frogs, turtles and salamanders ... and brought them home. I set up a bunch of bowls and pans and dishes with water and food ... all around our house. My parents came home and immediately encountered my menagerie. Well ... they explained to me that it wasn't good for the frogs, turtles and salamanders to disrupt their lives. They were very happy living where and how they were living. How were they going to survive in a habitat so foreign? How were they going to survive with food that wasn't good for them? What was going to happen to them and their young?
Well ... I felt so bad ... I mean really bad ... tears and all.
So ... my parents made me carry every single dish and bowl and pan, with all the water, with the turtles, frogs and salamanders, back to the pond and let them go.
It was a lot of work for a small kid. I did it. To say the least, I learned an awful lot from the entire experience. It was a life lesson very early on.
Didn't any of these BP bigshots ever have a life lesson?
All my life I've shared your feelings about nature, Sputnik. Just watching, seeing, encountering, hearing, smelling, draws me into a kind of ecstasy really, whether while crouching at the edge of a pond, swimming in the ocean, or hiking a mountain path. I mourn the loss of habitat which made such beautiful, engaging landscape for us humans.
It's the gulf and shore photos coming out that are making me sick, causing me to grieve the death of a beautiful world, and making me wonder how much more ham fisted humanity this former paradise of a planet can take.
Me too sputnik and Bliss Doubt. Ruined tourist beaches and seafood enterprises cause me only passing sadness. Dead wildlife, whether from oil or habitat destruction or littering our highways overpowers most other things I could be upset about. It defines me and my species as antithetical to life. I live in the middle of a wildlife preserve - a "life lesson" every day. I wish everyone could see things from here.
Compare the lesson you leared from that experience with the lessons that apparently helped George W. Bu$h learn during his youth. Rtaher than catching these critters and being told to release them for their own benefit back to where they came from, Bu$h blew them up with firecrackers. Supposedly, that is an early symptom demonstrated in people who later on in life become serial killers. Apparently, the theory was right on target with Bu$h.
I never knew that about Bush, but I have always known the type. I knew the minute that smirky bastard was elected that a lot of people were gonna die.
"How do people make it this far in life to reach the epitome of incompetence?"
The answer to your question is simple: They are so self-centered that they simply don't care about the wellbeing anyone else!
The quality of their product sucks for years anyhow. I stopped using them literally about ten years ago.
My motorcycle buddies and I renamed them as By Pass (BP), get it?
YAWN ! Let the free markets decide. Thank god for capitalism because without it you can't choose your pumps.
Yawn, NO ACCOUNTABILITY and plenty of stupid people.... YAWN.
Still chewing on that "free markets" myth, huh? Federal subsidies to oil companies, R&D 3 billion per year, military protection of their refineries and shipping lanes worldwide 19 billion per year, tax breaks 7 billion per year. That doesn't scratch the surface. How do you calculate the cost of unjust wars in petroleum rich regions of the world?
Corporate welfare is NOT free market.
Remember that scene in "Independence Day" when they figure out how to translate what the aliens are saying? The President asks them what they want and the alien replies, "we want you to die".
When BP and their mouthpieces in Congress, the White House and the MSM are speaking, catchphrases and buzzwords come out, over and over. It's all code and it is not unreasonable to translate as, "we want you to die".
Unless there is a complete re-organization of the whole national energy and political picture, we, the citizens of this country will end up paying for this blow-out. BP will dodge all but a few of the smaller bills. Boycott? Well, it's a start.
I said it before and i will say it again...Stephen Hawkings was onto something a couple of weeks ago.
So, i will suggest that BP and the u.s. government are trying to ensure that extraterrestrials who want our resources will not have reason to invade our planet.
It's my new story and i'm sticking to it.
Boycott BP? How does one do that - not buy their gas?
That's not where their money comes from. The entire world would have to join said boycott - and, even then, the effects would be minimal. Plus, all BP would do is change their gas station names to Happy Patriot Fuel and we lazy, passive Americans would go right back to filling the tank on the way to Walmart - after a quick stop at McDonald's, natch.
If ya haven't noticed, AIG is 'profitable' again. How'd that boycott go? And all of the Big Bankster Economic Terrorists - that's right, ALL - had a 'perfect' 1st Q - over 30 BILLION in PROFITS as unemployment climbs and foreclosures set new records. How's that Bankster boycott going?
Meanwhile, seeing as how Halliburton is directly responsible, how does one boycott them? Or Transocean, a company that has already made raked in a $400 million payout from their insurance company?
Boycotts make ya feel good, but are meaningless in a global economy.
Boycotts are very effective Frank. Your money is not being used to destroy the environment. Most battles are won by fractions. BP will definitely feel the reduced profits and so will their shareholders. In time their business will decline as well as their shareholders and share price.
Also, it is just a simple extension of the alternative economy's boycott of national and international corporations. Don't feed the beast Frank, starve it.
every action is part of the problem or part of the solution....BOYCOTT !
Why limit it to BP alone? Why not boycott all of Big Oil and let's finally wake up to hemp and algae along with other renewable technologies?
Don't be ridiculous. I need to go the the post office later this morning, and the minute I start my car I'm supporting big oil.