Thursday, June 3, 2010

Boycotting BP is not the right target

I know I have been saying that I will not fill up at BP anymore because of the Gulf disaster. However, they aren't the appropriate target we should inflict are anger on. We should really be upset at the government for passing lax regulations under the pressure of lobbyists and the donors who helped them raised their campaign funds.

Boycotting BP will not really affect their bottom line since today, BP owns only about 100 of the 900 or so gas stations bearing its name. The rest are operated by independent business owners. Such a boycott would hurt the individual owners. And really, we do not have many more choices. ExxonMobil is also one of the nation's biggest polluters in the world and Chevron has been denying responsibility for its role in an environmental catastrophe in the Amazon.

Obama has rightly suspended offshore lease sales, but he continues to promote a deeply counterproductive energy policy — on Thursday, during a news conference discussing the administration's response to the spill, he touted a Senate climate bill that would provide massive financial incentives to states that open their coasts to drilling, thus making a repeat of the spill more likely. Those provisions have to go. It's in Washington, not London, where protesters should make their voices heard. Sprint Evo

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