The anger about the BP Gulf oil spill and the amount of time it has taken to come up with a solution to stop the gushing oil as well as clean up what has already been released is mounting.
There are Boycott BP groups on Facebook (one has almost 500,000 fans) as well as a picture, which I suspect has been tampered with, of a BP pump sign that says not to leave the pump unattended because you are responsible for spills. Has anyone ever seen that sign at a real gas pump?
Still, it shows that people are angry with BP. In Providence, R.I., people are boycotting BP gas stations. Even though gas prices had dropped, there was no one waiting to use the pumps at two BP stations there. A worker at one of the BP stations in Providence said the station may go an hour without a single customer. He went on to say that people drive by shooting stuff like “BP sucks” and “Don’t buy BP.”
Protesters are also organizing in Atlanta. Midtown stations have protesters from the Rainbow Push Coalition who say they are hoping to raise awareness of the situation.
What is the problem with boycotting BP? There seems to be at least a couple. Number one, some of the stations being boycotted may be owned by local people, not the company. So is it really punishing the company or the local businessman? Another reason some say you shouldn’t boycott BP is because if the company starts losing money, it may claim it can’t afford to clean up the spill. Far fetched I know, but it is something to think about I suppose.
For a depressing reminder that the oil is still gushing out at an alarming rate, check out PBS’ NewsHour live oil cam, which also gives an estimation of how many gallons of oil has been spilled so far. When I checked, it was at 36 million gallons and growing.
(This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.)