BP and You

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know by now of the magnitude of the BP oil disaster in the gulf. This is the largest environmental debacle in US history, and it threatens to eventually affect every shoreline from Mexico to Canada, with the entire US East coast in the balance. It was shoddy drilling practices that led to the problem, and British Petroleum was responsible.

So how has BP reacted? First by dragging its feet in getting equipment into place to clean up the spill, then by lying to the President, Congress, and the American people about the magnitude of the problem, then by lobbying to get a judge who has financial interest in the oil industry. Finally, they have spent millions of dollars and countless experts in their fields to develop…wait, here’s the punch line…an advertising campaign which they are plastering on the most expensive TV ad time to describe the responsibility they are displaying in the face of this “situation.” They should be giving those millions of dollars to the fishermen whose lives they have ruined or to all of us consumers who will bear the brunt of absurdly high food costs resulting from this devastation.

Let’s face it—these people should go to jail! Everyone from BP’s CEO to their Board of Directors to the people responsible for the ad campaign should be locked up in a prison with Louisiana’s most dangerous inmates, who will be encouraged to plug their holes daily.

So what can you do about it? Aside from donating to charities to help those financially ruined by the disaster, you can boycott all BP products and affiliates. They include AMPM (Convenience Store Chain), ARCO (retail gasoline brand on the US West coast), and Castrol, as well as any company whose name starts with BP. Then, pay attention to who votes for what in Congress in the next few months and vote against any bastards who side with BP or other oil companies in deflecting responsibility for this environmental nightmare.