Frankly, 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.
