Boycott BP
By Amit Singh | Monday, May 31st, 2010 | PolicyFrankly, I am disgusted with BP and the Federal government’s response to the epic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. It continues to be a failure on multiple levels and is completely unacceptable.
The public at large has very little recourse with the Federal govt. The failures of enforcing current regulations are deep rooted in the bureaucracy of many dispersed agencies, which cannot perform the duties they were created for. Elected officials can stand on their soap boxes and chide these agencies for their inefficiencies, but in the end, their only solution is to make more agencies and regulations similar to the ones failing us.
However, the public has very different leverage with BP. In the end, BP exists to make money for their stockholders and they must do that by providing products and services at prices consumers want. For the Free Market to work properly, the consumer must make informed decisions. The devastating toll the oil leak is creating every day is a huge cost that we will pay to clean up in the form of higher taxes and more costly and ineffective regulations. Despite oil being a fungible commodity, individual oil companies can suffer loss in profits when consumers boycott their product.
Currently, I do not believe that BP is putting 100 percent into their efforts to stop the oil leak, and until they do so, I refuse to purchase any gas from a BP station. Others are upset as well. This can be seen by the Facebook page to boycott BP, which has over 240,000 members. I understand that most of these gas stations are franchised to small business owners who will take the brunt of the losses, but unless BP at the top sees their bottom line affected, they will continue to procrastinate putting their full resources to work in the Gulf. This is also to serve as an example to other oil companies that if they don’t take a look at their safety and environmental practices that they will also suffer the consequences of losing what they love most, money.
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20 Responses to "Boycott BP"
“I do not believe that BP is putting 100 percent into their efforts to stop the oil leak….” Um, what? What makes you say that?
I think:
1. they know very well what hideous PR it is that the leak isn’t fixed yet;
2. the engineering problems are really ugly;
3. they make money selling oil, not watching it leak into the Gulf. They want to fix the problem so they can get back to selling again.
Seriously, the bashing they are taking every day on the news has got to be hurting their bottom line a lot more than your not putting $25 of gas into your car.
Are you thinking that Joe BP Station owner will call up BP and say, “Don’t you realize you have to fix the leak?” and that BP will say, “What? We didn’t think it was that serious! Well maybe we’ll ramp up those efforts to plug the leak, then.”
Really, I think BP knows how bad it is.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but…
Is BP the ultimate go-to for the blame?
I’m not exactly defending BP, per se. However, I do understand that some information isn’t exactly as prominent as the rest.
1. Halliburton was operating the oil rig. From what I understand, isn’t part of the problem due to human operation error? If so, wouldn’t that leave a significant portion of the blame to Halliburton?
2. Transocean built the rig and the other components. As far as I know, there may have been an equipment failure. Isn’t that a Transocean issue?
I know BP owns/leases the well and hires/leases labor/equipment (respectively) and is ultimately responsible for this entire mess due to their orchestration of the rig and so forth. However, why don’t we hear about Halliburton or Transocean?
Just my two cents…
The individual gas stations are franchises.
The only people hurt by the boycott you propose are the franchise owners, who have nothing to do with Deepwater Horizon
I’m not terribly interested in putting the blame on BP. In fact, I’ve been going to BP gas stations more often than usual — seeking them out — because (1) I don’t blame the small businesses who just happen to have BP gas in front of their stores, and (2) somewhere deep down I can’t help but figure that BP is working the problem as best they can, with scientists, engineers, bureaucrats, government, Navy personnel (notable exclusions, of course), Coast Guard, the state gov’ts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida all breathing down their neck, etc.
Not to mention that literally, millions of dollars are leaking into the Gulf. Trust me, the #1 organization that wants to see this spill over is British Petroleum.
Now that doesn’t mean that BP couldn’t step it up and say donate 5% of every gallon of gas to cleanup efforts in the Gulf. Now that would be a Tylenol-like move. But that’s public relations… not working the problem.
BP is doing what it can with a heck of a lot more information to the citizens than I’ve ever witnessed during a public disaster. That deserves commendation, not criticism.
As for fixing the blame before fixing the problem, that’s just not constructive IMHO. As for me and my Saturn, we’re buying delicious, sweet BP gasoline.
So, “leverage” with a boycott against BP because you don’t have any “leverage” with Government? Take it out on big business because you can’t take it out on Government? Government is looking for “opportunities” like the Gulf Spill disaster so they can control and take over business.
Rahm Emanual (“don’t waste a serious crisis”) and his cronies have proven this true more than once in the past 18 months. Stand by for more “trickle down” control of business and another sector of our economy and in the end, when there is nothing left to boycott because it is all government, think about the good old days when you thought you had “leverage”.
Amit,
You do understand that the fuel you put into your tank comes from the same refinery that the fuel sold under the big names comes from don’t you?
Exxon Mobil is getting completely out of the retail market and sticking to oil extraction and refining to make their money.
If you boycott BP you will only hurt the franchise owner. If you do not buy your gasoline there, BP the refinery owner will just sell their gasoline to someone you will be willing to purchase it from. They’ve got you over the barrel. While you might be willing to boycott that does not mean you will be willing to park your vehicle permanently. You are still going to buy their product and you are still going to pay top dollar to get it.
My mind. It boggles.
Having visited Alaska two years after the Exxon Valdez incident, I can tell you every station in Alaska by then had dropped it’s Exxon franchise.
This time, we flush the British out of the U.S.
@above, no I don’t think it is a conspiracy theory and yes I’m sure BP thinks it is a serious problem they want to go away and yes I understand this is not a trivial problem.
why do I think BP is not putting all their resources into it? because in all my years as an engineer, whenever we had a high priority real-time problem, we would always make everyone stop and work on parallel solutions to the problem. what I see here is a series of solutions that are built, tried, and tested in series. that takes much longer to implement but is cheaper for the company.
granted, the work on the relief wells has now resumed so that’s good news for the longer term (i.e. August) but depending on which estimates you want to look at, this leak is going to be at least TWICE as bad as Exxon Valdez. I have to believe there are more options than just what is being done currently.
being a small business owner myself, I understand that if I am selling a product people don’t like I have to either lower the price or sell a different product. I expect the individual franchise owners will have some recourse with the mothership since they will continue to be the outlet for BP’s revenue.
but in the meantime, BP and other oil companies must take a hard look at all their safety and environmental regulations to ensure that a disaster like this does not happen again because the Feds are simply incapable of properly regulating complex industries and if the companies bottomline isn’t hurt by consumers then they will not regulate themselves.
I’d like to see the figures on how much BP and others are spending down in the gulf now. I bet its a huge number and will only continue to climb. Yeah its a temporary problem for the local industries but thats the amazing thing about capitalism. It tends to find ways to grow in spite of circumstances. Remember folks this oil eventually will be absorbed back into the ground from where it came. So unlike what the liberals would like you to think. It is a self correcting problem.
Amit, we will agree to disagree. BP is not entirely at fault but BP is responsible for the comedy of mistakes as much as the US government agency that oversees their offshore downhole ops. No president could benefit from this human caused disaster and it will profoundly shape the next election.
This is what happens when government regulated organizations fail to conform to their own conventions due to lax and/or incompetent government oversight. There are safe & redundant ways to drill in deep water because failure modes are well understood. This event would not likely have happen if comparable overlapping redundant protocols, which is common practise for nuke plants, had been in place.
Our federal government failed big this time, not BP. More specifically, our federal government failed to validate the availability and functionality of precautionary technology that could and should have been available in the region.. there should be laws in place requiring the capacity to handle the failure modes identified by BP’s FMEA. The scenario playing out right now was considered by BP engineers and in the future when history eeks out the truth I believe BP’s name will be cleared of much wrongdoing but they will remain responsible for the disaster and their tarnished brand will remain associated with it.
To put it in perspective.. you hire an architect to design a building then hire a contractor to build. The architect visits during construction and notifies you that the contractor is not building the house the way he designed it. You meet with the contractor and they tell you the architect did not design it the way it should be built. You meet with the city zoning/planning officer who says the building does not comply with the architects plans they signed off.. You are holding the bag, the architect holds the responsibility for designing to code, the contractor is responsible for interpreting the architectural plans and building to code, the city employee is held responsible for making sure the building design that his superiors authorized for construction is being built to code so that you will in the end have a reasonably safe house that at least meets minimum city requirements that primarily benefit you the owner and your neighbors.
Get my drift Amit? BP is not solely at fault here and neither are the contractors.. BP is responsible, government is at fault.. there is a big difference.
Amit,
You are correct in one respect that BP should have had multiple recovery operations in process at the same time rather than the to use the serial approach.
It’s like I’ve counseled my grands when looking for a job: Use the shotgun approach!
For one Boycots hurt every one in the long run. But some times it’s the statement thats being made in the long run that rules the nest in Washington. Remember all the business along the coast that are being effected to. No one so far has said a thing of there wows.( on here). so this is a complex and messed up situation. BP could have capped this well I believe. But,, they would not have profited form the well in the long run (pay for clean up). so I say they have been doing PR till they can find a way to tap it agian. For that I say they are wrong. Time will only tell. We will pay and life will go on.
Given the lack of progress so far, the only real way to get some movement on solving this will be to hold a National Gulf Oil Spill Science Fair and have the kids come up with the solution to the leak and the cleanup.
It could be held in Arizona.
Most recent efforts that I have heard is that BP has already spent nearly a billion to combat the leak. In response to BP’s volunteering to pay all legitimate claims for damage and our governmental leaders willingness to full throatily say they will, BP’s stock prices are headed downward.
But I ask what in response stopping the spill could BP have done better? The rapid attempt at the current measure after topkill failed only proves they are doing their best to stop the flow to the best of their ability. They were already working on the next plan.
Remember that the entire existence of the corporation might depend on success. I do not think they are motivated to pinch pennies while the continuing flow could potentially liquidate all their assets. It is only that you can only do one thing at a time. For example, you can’t cut through the pipe at the same time you are attempting to clog the pipe by pumping mud in.
I am going to add that I am at least a little upset with BP myself. Due to their efforts to cut costs, they cut safe extraction. In order to add a few pennies to the bottom line they give justification to those opposed to expansion of offshore drilling.
while it is true that BP is not solely at fault here and I agree that the Fed govt is to blame equally if not more for this tragedy, what can we as citizens do in response?
not pay our taxes?
wait until November to vote a few incumbents who at best are peripherally responsible for the failures of MMS?
and yes, I understand there are other companies involved as well (i.e. TransOcean & Halliburton). But as the end consumer, my only leverage is with the end vendor. It is up to BP to put pressure on TransOcean and Halliburton.
APPARENTLY the boycotters do not know how to add and subtract…… Let’s see here………. boycott BP, they lose MILLIONS of dollars, file bankruptcy cannot pay for the oil spill, and GUESS WHO has to pay for it now, US TAXPAYERS!!!! Wooo hoo way to go people!!! obama wants to roll back the tax credit for ALL oil companies, GUESS WHAT….they will stop producing, but YOU PEOPLE will not stop driving your cars and SUV’s….so gas will now be $12 a gallon, and we are paying unbelievable amounts to the arab nations producing oil. What is wrong with people honestly, do you know know ANYTHING about economics?? Don’t fret the president doesn’t either. Lets put the oil companies out of business, no one can afford gas but the well off, our cars become junk. Car manufacturers and dealers go out of business as well as all the companies that supply them, Away goes the jobs including UNION jobs. Back to bicycles, skateboards, skates, and horse and buggies. Then when cap and trade gets in, and we can no longer afford our utilities, we fade to dark. Crime skyrockets, … and on and on and on…. people just think of what feels good now and not what the consequences of their actions will do down the road. You liberals just need to go find some land and live there off the land with no conveniences gas, utilities, cars, and recycle everything and make your living off the land and be in tune with mother nature. But we all know what hypocrites you are,driving your cars and flying in your jets.
Interesting that no one seems to even mention that by boycotting BP stations will only result in more people losing their jobs. Is the spill the fault of someone ringing up your sale at the gas station?
As to BP not doing enough, or making too many mistakes, please remember that it has been Obama, Napolitano and Salazar that have been directing BP on all the efforts, through Thad Allen from the Coast Guard. I promise that BP has consulted with the finest in the world, but, they can only do what Obama signs off on. So far the only thing Obama seems to have done is blow his mouth with war words against BP. And Holder is already ruling BP guilty of war crimes, to be fully punished to the full extent of the law, before any investigations have been completed, or this thing finishes playing out. Funny that, Holder only upholds laws when they benefit him or the Obama admin.
BP is surely responsible for the costs of this disaster. It was the federal governments responsibility to put every resource possible in manpower to stop the oil from reaching the beaches. As Mara Liason, NPR Obma shill said a week or so ago- “Don Rumsfeld famously said (can’t find that quote anywhere from Rumsfeld) if you have a problem, and it’s hard to solve, make it bigger. He (Obama) needs to make this bigger and link the spill to his push for clean energy.” Bingo, there is your answer.
One more qustion would be ” why are we forced to drill in deep water while Chavez and Castro drill in our shallow water?” Shallow water drilling is safer and if a problem or disaster occurs its easier to fix. Answer anyone…. Where do you buy your gas and who owns the company…chances are its an enemy of the U.S. BP is our natural recorce not some dictatorships so give them a chance to do the right thing
Construction Position in todays market are hard to come by and this is made even more problematic by the fact that future employers are becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy. Personally, I think that the global markets should see vast improvements within the next sixyears and this should make everyones financial position easier to manage.
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