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I stuck with a simple yes/no to keep people like me from hedging their bets and saying "maybe".
I think that BP has been phenomenally negligent in the events that led up to the spill and nearly as incompetent afterwards. Between Hayward complaining about his lack of relaxation time, photoshopping employees into pics to make them look like they're working, expressing confusion as to why their stock prices might be going down and the photo op workers, they seem to be doing their best to give themselves a bad rep. And that's not even counting the screw-ups that have been hurting people, like the poor organization of clean-up crews on the ground and in boats, the delays in getting reimbursement checks (if at all), the screw-ups in fixing it and the overuse of dispersants.
But I think that they're honestly trying. It's just something that they hadn't planned for - and should have. But they are now. And it's not like all the screw-ups are them being tight-fisted. The oyster industry in Florida has basically shut down. Not because the oyster beds are closed, but because BP sent all the oystermen $5000 compensation checks (or $2500 if they're deckhands).
Still, it was a colossal screw-up on their part and not just one. According to their own reports, it's been a systemic problem at BP for years where they've been putting profits above safety. So I'm torn.
OTOH, what are the alternatives?
Exxon?
Back in 1989, they had a tanker spill in Alaska in an incident now known as the Exxon Valdez. The total costs were over $7 billion. Exxon was initially charged $5 billion in damages, but has challenged that and it was reduced to less than $600 million. Over 20 years later, they still haven't paid the full amount and many of the claimants have died. Plus, the coast is still contaminated.
Shell?
They're heavily involved in the oil from Nigeria which is spilling as badly as in the Gulf. They've also been accused of involvement in government persecution of tribes (and they paid fines, but didn't accept blame).
Chevron?
I personally kinda like them. They have some facilities in Indonesia which are fairly environmentally friendly. More so than the neighboring land which is being torn up by timber companies and more so than the government oil companies which get to regulate themselves (thus avoiding the middle step of bribing the regulators). However, they've had lots of problems in the Amazon which I'm not too clear on, but it sounds kinda like Shell's Nigeria problems.
Citgo?
Well, it's a Venezuelan company and the profits go more-or-less straight to Chavez. He's not any worse than your average tin-pot dictator except for his anti-Americanism (which is really only bad from our perspective; the other tin-pots have their own windmills to crusade against). And we seem to be fine with buying oil from tin-pot dictators that like us - like the Saudis.
Texaco? Pilot? Racetrack? Pure? Kangaroo?
I've lumped all of these together because they're pretty rare around here. I think that we have one station of each around town although they seem to be a bit more common in other places. (Isn't Texaco with Chevron now?) I think that Pilot is mostly associated with truck stops. It's actually the one that I go to the most often because it has the lowest prices and is on the way to work.
So from my perspective, there aren't a lot of choices for where you get gas. And the gas stations are owned privately so it's not really socking it to BP anyway.
I absolutely will not shop at Exxon. For some reason, I have the nagging feeling that I did get gas there once and I have no idea why, but that'll be the only time. I usually try to avoid Shell because of their Nigerian issues although Chevron still gets my business.
I answered my own poll with "no". I don't plan on boycotting BP unless they screw this up again (and they'll have plenty of opportunities.) However, I haven't bought gas there since the spill. It just doesn't feel right. They aren't the place that I usually go to, but I've deliberately passed up going there a couple times. So maybe it'll take me some time to get back to them. I don't think that it'll help if the BP station has lower prices (and I've seen a few that do). It'd feel like they're trying to buy me off. I may have cheap morals, but I only have a 10 gallon tank and the price of my conscience is a bit more than 3 cents a gallon.
