There’s a Facebook page, a low-rent website, a petition, and an explanation why (excerpted below).
A boycott will send a message to BP that its shoddy oversight of this project and its history of environmental and worker safety violations is unforgivable…This is a company that should fear the public’s wrath, for the Deepwater Horizon blowout was a preventable disaster. While much remains unknown, there is mounting evidence that BP could have averted the catastrophe. BP made a conscious decision not to install a $500,000 safety device that could have prevented the blowout. There is good reason to believe BP’s contractors on the Deepwater Horizon made multiple mistakes leading up to the disaster, but it is ultimately BP’s job to make sure its contractors are exercising sufficient care…this is not a case of bad things happening to good people. BP has one of the worst environmental and safety records of any oil company operating in the United States. BP has pled guilty in just the last few years to two crimes and paid more than $730 million in fines, penalties and settlements for environmental crimes, willful disregard for workplace safety and energy market manipulation.
So, should BP be boycotted? And will a consumer boycott prove effective?
Should they be boycotted? Is that really something you’re considering debatable?
Yes. It is clear that BP are not as green as they pretent do be. Now what is the length of a boicott. Should we boycott also the conservation organizations that don’t revaluate their cooperation with BP? They are quite a few, as can be seen on my latest blog post.
http://www.kolibriexpeditions.com/birdingperu/blog/index.php/bp-and-bird-conservation/
@Matt D: Yes, because an ineffective boycott would be worse than not boycotting at all.
This does remind me of the calls to boycott Exxon/Esso after the Valdez disaster. I don’t think the boycott calls were heeded then, and I don’t think they will be heeded now. What’s needed is for the US government to stop looking ‘shocked’ and trying to convince the world that they really had no idea something like this could ever happen, and stab this big unruly beast through the heart with a fine that BP won’t want to ever have to face again.
How’s that? Keeping some money out of BP’s pockets is better than not, isn’t it? I’m certainly advocating a proper, full boycott, whatever that is and however it may be done, but what defines an “ineffective boycott” and how does an ineffective boycott benefit BP? BP’s sole purpose is to maximize profits, and reducing their revenue in any way doesn’t help them to accomplish their sole purpose. In other words, while whatever would define a complete boycott would be ideal, I don’t see what’s worse about an “ineffective boycott” versus none at all.
I’d like to think people are smart enough to get a boycott right, but then again, a junkie doesn’t give a sh*t where his/her heroin comes from, so I wouldn’t place a wager.
@Matt D: The idea of a large-scale boycott is to change behavior. If a boycott happens and BP isn’t forced to change their behavior then it actually encourages other oil companies to be just as obnoxious.
I feel that we should boycott BP. There is no excuse for the non-existent contingiency plan in case of an emergency. This goes to show that BP only was concerned about how much money they can squeeze from the American Public. Stop blaming the government. This is not the same as Katrina. Katrina was a natural occurance. BP was simple neglect and non-caring. All the republicans and Fox news pundits, talk about less government. Now they critize the government for not getting involved. BP is a business. The spill is their fault. And don’t allow the media to stop the boycott. The media states that BP gas stations do not necessarily serve BP gas. Are you kidding me? Do you honestly think a big name company will allow a station owner to use their name and not their gas.
A boycott would be silly. What we need is a march on Washington DC, a march on London UK, demanding that the governments seize BP’s assets and work together with their armed forces to direct the cleanup – search and destroy the islands of oil floating underwater, clean up the beaches now, transport and feed armies of people desperately needed on the shorelines RIGHT NOW. Treat it like a war. The two countries did great things in WW II. This should be no different. So, when do we march?!?!?!
Although BP is fully responsible for this situation, we are also to blame for our never-ending need for more energy. This is only the beginning and is only the tip of the iceberg. What about smaller spills nobody talks about. What about spills taking place in third-world countries.
I wish I am wrong, but unless we re-assess our way of life and try to live more in harmony with nature, our future is bleak.
We should boycott our way of life…
We need to do both. We need a full boycott of all BP’s products and services. We also need to demand REAL clean energy like Solar, Wind, Sterling, and Electric. Clean Coal is a JOKE! Clean Gas is a JOKE! Anything you have to burn that has a byproduct IS NOT CLEAN! Don’t let the media fool you.
Here’s how we can boycott BP.
1) Mass text messages to cell phones describing how to boycott BP.
2) Mass chain emails also describing how to boycott BP.
The technology we have today (Cell Phones and Emails) will make the boycott much more effective.
Marching is good too. When and Where?
What will the Text Message say? How can we effectively get the message spread?
Yes, we should boycott BP, I’ve been doing it since this whole mess began. We should also demand alternative fuels by researching wind, water and solar energy. By making our interest known, companies may begin producing more of this technology and make it avaiable to us. The solution is switching to renewable resources so that this never happens again. We could be independent of oil by the end of this century if we all set our sights on aquiring new energy sources that don’t make such a mess. I’ve never heard of the sun poisoning the oceans.
A boycott is fine if it really hit them where it hurts but many BP gas stations are franchises….. sure it will hit BP in the long run but you’ll also force plenty of mom and pop gas stations out of business. I’m all in favour of clean energy but I’m afraid I still drive a car and use products derived from oil….. full repsect to anyone here that gives up their car and doesn’t buy anything thats produced from oil….. and the US Gov is just as to blame as anyone else in this mess, they are all in bed together….. do you think Obama can afford to ban all drilling in the US and face the backlash from eveyone when gas hits $10/gallon?
A boycott is a good idea but we need to find out ALL of British Petroleum’s affiliates, divisions, franchises and subsidiaries. If we don’t boycott the whole company, it’s meaningless.
Marching on Washington is no good either. Why? I got this from WIki “According to the Center for Responsive Politics, BP is the United States’ hundredth largest donor to political campaigns, having contributed more than US$5 million since 1990, 72% and 28% of which went to Republican and Democratic recipients, respectively. BP has lobbied to gain exemptions from U.S. corporate law reforms.[79] Additionally, BP paid the Podesta Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, $160,000 in the first half of 2007 to manage its congressional and government relations.[80]
In February 2002 BP’s chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley, renounced the practice of corporate campaign contributions, noting: “That’s why we’ve decided, as a global policy, that from now on we will make no political contributions from corporate funds anywhere in the world.”[81]
Despite this, in 2009 BP used nearly US$16 million to lobby US Congress, breaking the company’s previous record (from 2008) of US$10,4 million.[82] ”
Hitting BP in the wallet is far more effective. But it can’t be a little demonstration, it has to be a boycott against all BP’s business holdings. I just don’t know how to find all of that out so I don’t accidentally but anything from them.
So far I know of the following BP brands… Castrol, Arco, Aral, am/pm, Amoco, and Wild Bean Cafe, Safeway gas. There may be more but I can’t find them nor can I find out if any of the stations near me get deliveries from BP.
Oops!! I meant “I just don’t know how to find all of that out so I don’t accidentally >BUY< anything from them.” … “buy” not but…hee hee hee!
Not that it really matters but BP stopped being British Petroleum about 10 years ago mainly because of it’s merger with Amoco…… The largest share of BP employees are American. All of the Gulf of Mexico work is run exclusively from the main US offices in Houston……
BP has been greenwashing their image for years. The entire “Beyond Petroleum” green wash campaign was a complete farce and has been know to be a sham to the environmental community for years. I’m afraid the only positive thing about this disaster is that BP will finally be outed as one of the worst “NON” green companies in the world and should rightly be punished at the pumps. Permanently BOYCOTT BP fuel forever…send a message to the oil companies once and for all. Considering how many lives will be permanently destroyed by this fiasco….I don’t think there is a price tag you could actually put on this debacle.
BP is much like the Japanese car companies in the U.S., American employees, American executives, etc. The real “horsepower” is still overseas. Remember Toyota lately. Now, it didn’t take an oil spill for me to start boycotting BP, and now Amoco and ARCO (the old Atlantic Richfield Co.) since they were bought by BP. I learned by doing a term paper back in the late 80s that BP is majority owned by THE Royal Family of guess where. Let them to continue to get rich off “the colonies”? Not me, for years!! (Oh, how much drilling is going on in Great Britain?) Sadly enough the only major U.S. oil company is EXXON, (I don’t buy EXXON, either)as most others are owned by overseas companies.
BP is one of those companies run solely on avarice. This ecological tragedy could have been prevented.
Wood. The BP “horsepower” mainly comes from Houston and I’m sorry but your comment about the royal family having a majority share in the company is laughable and massively ill informed….. As all major company share holdings are in the public domain please feel free to share some proof.
Don’t kid yourself that BP is British just to make yourself feel less responsible for the US addiction to oil……. Iraq…… Anything to do with oil by any chance?
i vote for all of the above – enough is enough – whether the BP stations serve BP gas or not i dont care – im going to stop buying BP anything – and then im going to find out what they changed their name to (and they will) and i will not buy any of that either
this one is simple – they screwed the world – the world needs to answer that clearly
Peter P. I have done my research and am satisfied with the results. Maybe you should do yours. What you see in Houston is what the controlling interests want you to see, i.e., just another company trying to make a buck by selling shares. No amount of shares bought here will ever be enough to take control of the BP company. The largest per centage is not public and is not for sale.
Now I must move on. The are bucks to be made out there. Imagine what BP share prices will be in, say, eighteen months!!
I’d like to boycot’em, but i’m european and have no knowledge of bp brands here (perhaps just castrol)… someone knows how to find an exhaustive list of their products and activities in eu?
Wood don’t you think your research is a little out of date….. the Royals may well have had some ownership of BP back in the late 80s but things have changed massively since then….. BP is a totally different beast since it merged with Amoco and Arco. If you care to do some proper research you’d learn that BP is 40% UK owned (the vast majority of which is in pension funds) with 39% in US hands….. the single biggest BP shareholder is JP Morgan Bank with 27% holdings (glad to see they are making good use of their US Gov bailout money!).
Sorry I’m not defending BP at all but it pisses me for seeing misinformed people like youreslf spouting BS based on very old data, data which probably wasn’t correct in the first place and certainly isn’t even close today.
P.S. The Queen isn’t even in the top 200 richest people in the UK with “only” £290M in the bank…… even if she wanted to invest in BP shares using all of that forture she still wouldn’t be able to own even 1% of the company
This is a NO Brainer! Don’t Buy BP’s gas! It’s that simple!
Let’s face it… not eveyone will boycott but if a few of use do we will keep the pressure on and this will ensure that the clean up over the long run.
Keep spreading the message!
Absolutely! How could we not as responsible nature lovers continue to allow these big business companies take advantage of our world and our slowly dwindling species of animals, corals, fish and plant life. Shame on the U.S. government for allowing them to continue with other drilling sites in the beautiful caribbean!!
BP are murderers. They are killing the ocean as well as countless numbers of wildlife. BP are just money hungrey bastards. Im never going to buy my petrol or anything from them ever again. Im very saddened by the images of wildlife covered in the oil. It makes me sick to my stomach. BP only care about making money, they are heartless just like every other big companies out there that will destroy the environment just to make money. I can’t believe they even turned down James Camerons help,they obviously wont to take all the credit for themselves for when they finally stop the oil leaking (whenever that will be) I hate BP with so much passion. BP is evil
Yeah lets boycot BP lets drive them to financial ruin so they cant afford the clean up,lets drive companies away from delivering oil to the fat Americans and their fatter SUVs,lets make it so the US has to go cap in hand to states like Iran to feed its obcene consumption of fossil fuels!!! good idea personally im hoping this works, not because of its effect on BP but im hoping that at some point in the future a US company who does a “Bopal” or an “Exxon” will have its own facebook boycot page or better yet how about a worldwide boycott triggered by the US continuing to support Israel??? 100,000 members, baby if that one gets tractions it could be in the billions!!!!! REAP AS YOU SOW ? GOD I HOPE SO! Make BP pay sure every dime but if ya want em to pay they need to earn DER !!!
At least BP are more honourable than the likes of Exxon….. from day 1 BP said they will pay all costs and damaged ignoring the legal limit of $75m.
Exxon would have said f%$k you guys we’re only paying $75k as per the law and then they would have probably dragged it though courts for years….. afterall they NEVER paid the fines imposed on them for Valdeez.
The rhetoric from the US Gov seems to be lining up to take the BP Gulf assets over back into US hands…… Exxon (read US Gov) have always wanted a bigger piece of the Gulf…… mark my words the next thing we’ll see is a crippling fine for BP sized at just the right value to “purchase” the gulf assets (probably $60Billion) thats when Exxon will step in and generously offer to continue operations in the Gulf but only if they avoid the fine. So a less careing oil giant ends up in control and they’ll say “shit all that oil ain’t our problem” and the cleanup will stop.
I pray to be proved wrong and that BP are kept on the hook to do a full clean up
@Steve, Do you seriously believe that any boycott at this point in time will push BP into financial ruin? Trust me, even if they sell nothing from any one of their businesses, they’ll have plenty of money. The arrogant, greedy right(more greedy than the not as arrogant greedy left, which is the lesser of the two evils.) in this country has seen to that…it’s called corporate welfare. The big oil companies have been drawing it even though they have been bringing in record profits. So, I think they’ll do just fine.
I just cannot see myself buying from BP or any other name they own. For me it is wrong and if more people follow suit then perhaps BP’s massive profits won’t be as big. To greedy people, making less is worse than making nothing. And let’s face facts…making nothing?…in the world of big oil, that will never happen. So we have to try to cut into the fat cat’s vacation funds. Maybe then we’ll get somewhere. But I won’t hold my breath.
I think BP should clean up the oil before we even think about boycotting them because if we boycott them, they wont be able to clean up the mess! I think we should be mean and make them clean up the oil and then boycott them…. and thats my opinion 🙂
BP should be banned from doing business in this country as a long term remedy. Also, any profit they make from the leaking oil being collected should go straight to a fund to restore the gulf shores for the long term.
You can all do what you want. I am never buying a BP product ever again.
I have very mixed feelings about the rally to boycott BP. Yes, the oil company should pay through the kazoo, HOWEVER, by boycotting, the people affected first and foremost will be the station and store OWNERS, – our own citizens. We must put a LOT of thought into this and possibly demand from BP that they compensate their franchisees as well as all of the other people/animals affected by their reckless quest for oil. And don’t forget all of our own political people who had their hands out to BP for turning a blind eye and ignoring any and all back-up safety precautions being in place.
While a boycott will not put BP into financial ruin, with enough people involved, it will certainly hurt.
IMO, the only thing ‘green’ about BP is their logo.
For those who asked what the BP holdings are, I found this on their website, http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9&contentId=7046348 I don’t know if that’s an exhaustive list or not, but those are the brands under the BP name in the US.
There is nothing to debate. Just do it! Start boycotting BP on your own now.
Just the fear of being boycotted can make a stock go down, and that is what most executives are most worried about.
But beyond the money it is a moral issue. One simply cannot support such brutal negligence as BP is currently demonstrating.
Maybe by the threat of boycott other oil companies may get scared into at least drilling responsibly.
Stations and owners? Well, they can take their BP logos down, and start finding alternate suppliers. There is always a demand for gas. Though they may get stung in the near term, they will not go down if their thinking.
The stupidity of this effort is only exceeded by Sawyer reporting on it (promoting it). The peolpe selling BP products are local small (American) business owners who will lose their livelihood if such stupidity continues; i.e., BP does not own the stations. And, given the apparent intelligence of the author of the Facebook movement, it will no doubt continue unabated as the intelligence of the legacy media is the at the same level. What people like Ashton Kutcher and all those other knee-jerk jerks (congress not excluded) are also ignorant of is that Billy Jeff signed The Deepwater Royalty Relief Act of 1995 – http://www.energybulletin.net/node/3691 as an incentive to petroleum companies to do deepwater exploration. This is the result of our enviro-wacko-nazis pushing to have no exploation on land. You reap what you sow.
Saddam spills in Kuwait (1992) – 500M gallons
Average yearly spills – 250M gallons
IXTOC Oil Rig (1979) GOM – 140M gallons
Amoco Cadiz ship (1978) – 60M gallons
Torrey Canyon ship (1967) – 35M gallons
Exxon Valdez (1989) – 10M gallons
The earth with help has recovered quite well, and it will again.
BP-Deep Water Horizon – 35M gallons
@BeanerECMO: Your stupidity is matched only by your invective and lack of spelling ability. Sadly, you have proven (for the umpteenth time) Godwin’s Law and have also managed to include a link that doesn’t really support your argument. Sure, Clinton signed that law but, well, so what? It was republicans in congress that passed it and the Bush Administration that loosened regulations and none of them could be classified as environmentalists.
Oh, and as for me, well, I don’t own a car, so buying or not buying BP gasoline is not something I am concerned with but, to be honest, I am not going to lose any sleep over a gas station owner losing money.
I don’t know the conversion to gallons but Katerina is thought to have resulted in over 1,000,000 barrels into the gulf…..
the recession is still not over so yes BOYCOTT BP don’t pay for the oil clean up you didn’t cause the spill.