I simply cannot bring myself to purchase gasoline at a BP station.

[leftrightwingnut]

I know that avoiding BP stations is only hurting a local station owner and employees. But I still cannot bring myself to do it.

I'm not talking about boycott here. I'm talking about a good, old-fashioned shunning. I am shunning BP gas stations simply because I would be too embarrassed to be seen at one. I would be extremely ashamed to be seen there pumping gas into my car. Really.

So, I am sorry, BP station franchisees and anyone who works there. I don't want to hurt you but I am just really freaked out by that BP logo.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. do you suppose that other oil companies are any better?

I don't.

[roamer65]

2. I won't stop.

The BP brand is dead in America. They will have to sell off their American operations soon.

I won't stop at Mobil stations because of the Exxon Valdez.

[ThomThom]

25. deleted

[tekisui]

3. Good. You should be ashamed.

BP really deserves the corporate death penalty.

[JuniperLea]

4. Remember that includes ARCO...

No BP/ARCO, no Exxon...

Can you name a "good" oil company? Isn't that a contradiction of terms?

[rox63]

6. Do Getty stations also fall under BP?

I could swear I heard that they did.

[JuniperLea]

10. I've not seen them listed...

The BP site cites ARCO, AmPm, and Amoco.

http://www.bp.com/managedlistingsection.do?categoryId=9031085&contentId=7014114

[taterguy]

14. As has been stated too many times: Oil is fungible, whatever the hell that means

The oil companies send their stuff to central locations and then redistribute it.

So if you're buying any gas at all, you're helping the bottom line of BP.

[rox63]

24. Well, if I don't buy gas, I don't get to work

:(

[rox63]

5. I can't either

I pass a BP station every day on my way to and from work. And it's been really deserted lately. Occasionally I'll see a car parked in front of the mini-mart at the station. But I pass it twice a day on a busy road, and I don't think I've seen a car gassing up there in weeks.

[Terra Alta]

7. A BP station is in the process of being built here

and I probably won't be stopping either, unless it's to get snacks or a drink or something... I definitely won't be gassing up there.

[blue neen]

8. The gas station at the corner changed just last week from Citgo to BP.

This is at a major intersection that I see every day. The amount of vehicles stopping there is far, far less.

[KoKo]

9. Why should you care?? The BP Convience Store clerks will be picked up by other companies

as they EXPAND to fill the void of the Public's Perception of BP as a LOSER.

Those folks will get jobs elsewhere. I don't think that they think like we do here. They KNOW THEIR WORTH...whereas WE DON'T.

So BOYCOTT BP. I spent the last three years partronizing CHAVEZ's Gas Stations (manned by Pakistani's, Indians, and folks from Oppressive African countries who were allowed into America to have PROMISE)... So...I know these folks are going to do WELL in America like my Immigrant Ancestors did for THEIR CHILDREN.

So BOYCOTT THEM ALL... the folks here will get jobs and more up the SOCIAL LADDER in AMERICA! It's not all BAD out there...really!

[Owl]

11. I won't stop at a BP station. They've enormous amends to make first.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

12. screw BP, and yes I still am boycotting EXON.

and you should be to

[taterguy]

13. I'll add to the pile-on: Where should you be purchasing gas?

Maybe you shouldn't be driving so much.

Or maybe you're just some chickenshit who feels like venting but not actually doing anything about it.

[leftrightwingnut]

15. That's the point. What choice do I have?

I'm the chickenshit who lives in a country with a fundamental infrastructure based on cheap gasoline with no real public transit system and endless suburbia. I'm the chickenshit who buy gas because I don't have and cannot buy an electric car. I'm the chickenshit who doesn't have 40% efficiency solar cells to charge my electric car so that I don't have to buy gas. I'm the chickenshit who can't buy enough wind power to charge my electric car that I don't have. I'm the chickenshit who has to sit here idly watching this once great country decline into third world status while China and the rest of the world advance alternative energy solutions that we will be buying from them someday because our government is too chickenshit to get out of bed with the chickenshit robber-baron oil companies.

That's my point. We have to do something now. Or is our government too chickenshit for that?

[taterguy]

17. You're the chickenshit who chooses to live far away from the places you need to be

Or the chickenshit who thinks you need some other power to get to places that can be easily reached on foot or by bike.

And if you think it's helpful to wait for someone else to solve this problem for you, well, you're a chickenshit.

[leftrightwingnut]

20. Oh, we'll all be biking and walking before too long.

It's just a question of what kind of influence the United States will have in the world when that happens.

This is a political forum, after all. You avoid the obvious. We need some leadership here.

What do you know about me? And how I get to work? Sometimes, one needs to get somewhere that's beyond walking and biking distance. And then there isn't really a choice.

[taterguy]

22. Don't follow leaders. Watch the parking meters

[ShortnFiery]

16. I look forward to when they mass produce and AFFORDABLE electric car.

:thumbsup:

[HopeHoops]

18. Hell, I still won't buy Exxon gas - or Mobil now that they own it too.

Fuckers.

[Scuba]

19. So where do you buy your BP gas?

You cannot choose ! BP-drilled gas will show up at any and all pumps.

You're just punishing the minimum wage clerks who didn't choose to drill in an unsafe manner.

[leftrightwingnut]

21. Exactly. Logically, it's pointless to avoid it.

But, emotionally, I cannot do it. It seems that there isn't much business at BP stations these days. And I wondered if others were having the same reaction.

[unkachuck]

23. "...I am just really freaked out by that BP logo."

....me too....think CITGO!

[LanternWaste]

26. Smaller statements of belief...

Smaller statements of belief, and less important declarations of intent have been the catalyst for great changes in the past.

What may be seen as tilting at windmills by your critics may just as validly be perceived as holding onto the courage of one's convictions by others.

In the May 27, 1950 issue of JAMA, Morton Levin published the first major study definitively linking smoking to lung cancer-- a rather small step which has had profound effects on both the industry and our culture.

While small steps are quite often scoffed at, sneered at, dismissed and minimized by the self-proclaimed 'more clever than thou' crowd, the historical effects can be quite dramatic.