Posted on 06/14/2010 4:58:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
Liberal activists say that British Petroleum has shirked its responsibilities in dealing with the gulf oil spill, so they’ve started a boycott of the company. Like many boycotts, this one doesn’t seem to be very effective.
“BP had the resources to drill and create this horrible disaster, now they have the responsibility to clean it up,” said Levana Layedecker, Communications Director of Democracy for America, in a release. “But, they won't do it on their own. They need to know we will make them pay one way or another.”
Apparently, the $17.5 million a day ($1.2 billion in total) that BP has already paid isn’t enough. The company “continues to deny the extent of the problem,” and “is still playing games with the numbers,” sentiments also expressed by our commander in Chief. It’s not clear if Democracy for America, or Obama, wants BP to simply stop the spill, or pony up more money in the meantime. Whatever the case, Democracy for America and a host of other liberal groups are trying to impose punitive damages on the oil company with a widespread boycott of the company’s gas stations.
Groups involved include Ralph Nader's consumer advocacy organization “Public Citizen,” a 300,000-member Facebook group, a bizarre alliance between nu-metal band Korn and pop-icons the Backstreet Boys, in addition to activists such as Jesse Jackson and Cindy Sheehan. Their methods vary from simply encouraging followers to buy elsewhere, to donating money for tacky bumper stickers that say “Boycott BP: AnyoneButBP.com.”
If it seems futile, that’s because it is, says one industry insider who spent 25 years in the business.
“When someone says, ‘I want to boycott BP,’ the person you wind up hurting is the guy who lives in the community, buys the pages in the high school year book, and the cookies from the girl scouts. So, not he’s representing the ‘evil’ BP,” he said. “What I think they ought to do instead is…start walking.”
In other words, boycotting certain gas stations only stands to harm individual gas station owners, not the larger company. That’s because individual stations that have the BP logo on them may or may not buy from a BP gas distributor. More importantly, stations that don’t have the BP logo are just as likely to buy from a BP distributor. A host of liberal media outlets, from the New York Times to Time magazine, have pointed out the futility of a boycott.
“You see their market dropping significantly already. Americans are already dissatisfied with BP,” said Nicolas Loris, a research assistant at the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. “I don’t think a boycott is going to enhance that message any more than what the marketplace is already doing.”
One relevant example is the boycott of Citgo, which is owned by Venezuela. In 2002, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made controversial remarks about the United States' war in Iraq, which led many activists to call for abandoning Citgo fuel. That boycott accomplished virtually nothing except for a temporary downswing in business for locally-owned gas stations.
It’s easy to think that walking away from a store leads to decreased revenues for that product, but that’s simply not the way it works when it comes to the oil and gas industries, said Loris. Things like consumer protests and government regulation simply don’t have the “oomph” to deal with the problem.
“BP is to blame, and they’re responsible for the spill, but the unfortunate thing is that they don’t have the technology to deal with the leak,” said Loris. “Meddling isn’t going to fix that problem.”
The anti-corporate left-wing strikes again. From what I can see, BP is the only organization doing anything, while the government sits on its hands and tells BP what to do.
Alex Jones? Your evidence that BP is refusing to pay for the spill cleanup and compensate people beyond their liability cap is a video from Infowars? While even a blind acorn finds a nut every once in a while I’m lothe to take much of what AJ posts at face value.
Here’s an article about BP paying for fisherman’s lost income to the tune of $84MM, which is $9MM in excess of their liability cap.
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7062660
I like them better than him as well(sometimes they take over when he's away).
"I can't stand they way he talks, but I love to hear him sing."
ref. about Spike Jones
Yes, and he won’t let the international help in because of the Jones Act, which protects the UNIONS. Bush, with Katrina, immediately waived the Jones Act and let others in to help. Obama is in bed with the unions and will do nothing that is not ‘union label.’
I hope it backfires on him and the unions, big time.
Me too, but not at the expense of our natural resources.
I have never pulled into a BP and never will. And it has nothing to do with the oil spill. Its all about the “B” in BP. B for British. If I am going to pay for gas then I want to pay an American company.
Why would I boycott a company over an accident that is out of their control. Sure, they haven’t capped the flow of oil, but this kind of thing has never happened in water this deep. I blame Obama for his efforts to prolong this disaster (i.e. turning down offers of help from other countries), and I blame the envirowackos for demanding that drilling only be done that far out.
My sentiments exactly
The reason I will not pull into a BP station is because it is usually 5 cents or more higher then the station I go to. But then I never have nor will I ever go to a CITGO station for the same season, plus that Hugo Chavez owns the Oil company.
We have a BP station that appears to be a leader in lowering prices. So it is the place to go. Unfortunately it is a little out of my way, so I only go there when I am nearby for other business.
But HE will do it at the expense of our natural resources. That is what he is choosing. That is really disgusting. He is a disgusting, low-life, pandering, fool of a man.
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