Send a message: Boycott BP
If, like me, you’re really angry about the nightmare in the Gulf, you could join the boycott against BP. Signing a petition against the giant oil company or joining the anti-BP Facebook group might make you feel better, but such actions aren’t likely to have much of a long-term impact, though.
Mohamed Alam, an employee at the BP station on the corner of Columbia Pike and John Marr Drive in Annandale, says business has been a bit slower than usual but expects things to pick up soon.
Even before the oil well leak, I couldn’t understand why anyone would use that gas station anyway, as it had just about the highest prices in Annandale. For example, on May 30, the most basic gas was $2.99 per gallon at the BP station, compared to $2.79 at the Sunoco station on Little River Turnpike and Hummer Road.
A boycott is likely to be more successful in terms of influencing government policymakers than inflicting any economic damage on BP, which had sales of about $240 billion last year worldwide.
Furthermore, BP doesn’t own local gas stations; they’re owned by independent franchisees, so a boycott would hurt local business owners more than BP.
Nevertheless, “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,” says Public Citizen President Robert Weissman. Public Citizen advocates a three-month boycott of BP and the companies it owns, including Alcoa, Arco, and Castrol, to pressure the company to pay for the entire cost of the cleanup plus full damages to anyone who loses their livelihoods due to the catastrophe.
Unfortunately, gas stations are franchises and there is zero impact on BP in the short term. All you really do is hurt the local business.
Well my thought is that if we are going to boycott BP, we should boycott the firms and subs that were working with BP on that oil rig. We should also boycott the Federal Government who's oversite and (in)action over this disaster has been nothing less than horrid.
Much like you, my reason for boycotting BP is due to their prices. That said, if the boycott was able to hurt BP directly (and only), the likely result would be a loss of employment for some of BPs 90,000+ employees and perhaps less competition at the gas pump. What is good about that? How a symbolic boycott of BP would influence govt policy makers (who had a, um, nice working relationship with BP, to put it nicely) is beyond me.
The Feds deserve at least as much blame as BP. Nobody has responded stellarly. Numerous people say that the Feds can't take over because BP is the one with the expertise. That may be somewhat true but I think there are other gas companies that also have experience and expertise as well as some very smart people in govt, educational institutions and private business. Right now, we are relying completely on BPs expertise. Only the Feds could put together experts from outside BP and set up a structure that would allow, fund and coordinate an effort with all those groups and BP.
The last thing BP wanted was for this to happen because this is something that could end the company as well as the industry. That explains, but certainly does not excuse, them trying to minimizing the reported damage. BP is responding to an unprecedented and really virtually unexpected calamity. To think that they are not doing their best to stop the leak makes no sense. The effort is there, they just don't seem to be doing a very good job on a problem nobody expected in a million years. We will have to see how well BP compensates people afterwards and what they do to make things right.