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Buying BP gas poses dilemma
(by Dave Lange - October 07, 2010)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Buying BP gas poses dilemma
By now, anyone who paid attention, knows that the explosion of BP Oil's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, which killed 11 workers, was no accident. BP has a long history of disregarding federal regulations that are supposed to prevent such disasters, and this wasn't the first time the results were deadly.
Just as certain, BP will never pay for the unfathomable damage it has done to the Gulf economy and environment. In fact, from the moment the Deepwater Horizon rig went up in flames, BP executives went to work to limit the damages -- to their corporation.
So, human beings, by human nature, have been looking for some way, any way, to exact a bit of retribution against the oil company that has treated their fellow humans and their country so rudely.
It has been widely reported that sales are down at gas stations across the country that deal with BP. Unfortunately, while BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward was able to resign with an obscene $930,000 annual pension, many BP station owners and employees have been hurting. Although there no longer are any BP-owned gas stations in Ohio, most continue to carry the BP corporate identity, and they still sell BP gas.
According to the manager of the BP station on Aurora Road (Route 43) in Solon, its sales have fallen by 20 percent since the gulf spill. The owner of the BP station at East Washington and South Main streets in Chagrin Falls said it has weathered the storm of negative publicity, but his BP station in Aurora has been suffering. An official with EZ Energy USA, which owns the BP station at Chillicothe (Route 309) and Chagrin roads in Bainbridge, has posted a sign to remind customers that it is an independent operation.
In the first six weeks after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, according to a report in Mother Jones magazine, BP spent $50 million on advertisements to improve its image and $43 million to its victims along the Gulf Coast.
Just two days after the explosion, BP bought up a third of the world's supply of dispersants, the magazine reported. "While untreated oil quickly rises to the surface, where it can be skimmed with relative ease" and accounted for, according to the report, the dispersant causes it to sink into the ocean depths, where the ecological damage will be pervasive but can never be accurately assessed. Oil and dispersant both are toxic to most life, and mixing the two is even worse. The Environmental Protection Agency demanded that BP use a less toxic dispersant, but the company refused.
BP rented virtually all the hotel rooms along the Louisiana shore, chartered nearly every boat and put scores of scientists on its payroll, all in an effort to prevent independent oversight of its dirty deeds.
So how do conscientious citizens do the right thing, which is to stop supporting a rogue corporation whose irresponsible practices cause such death and destruction and then does everything possible to avoid full responsibility for its actions -- without doing the wrong thing, which is to hurt fellow citizens, who, through no fault of their own, must support themselves and their families by selling BP's tainted products?
I cannot answer that. But I am familiar with human nature. If BP would reduce the price of its gasoline about 20 cents a gallon below that of its competitors, consumers will forget about Deepwater Horizon in a heartbeat.
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