Planes, Trains Automobiles & BP Boycott: All a Red Herring

This is what I've heard about the BP oil spill in the Gulf from a variety of sources, and like me, I'm sure you've noticed everyone is taking every chance they have to say something (now, including me):

On June 14, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) sent a message that read:

While the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico gets worse by the minute, BP continues to dodge the tough questions about what went wrong and what they're doing to fix it.    

It's time we got some straight answers. If BP won't give them of their own free will, we must compel them to do so. This week, 18 of my colleagues and I introduced legislation to grant President Obama's bipartisan investigative commission subpoena power that will allow it to uncover the unvarnished truth.  

. . .

As the slick approaches more than a hundred miles in either direction, the economic and environmental costs are seemingly immeasurable. Thousands of Gulf Coast residents have already had their livelihoods stolen from them and the region is losing billions in economic productivity. Equally heartbreaking is millions of acres of wetlands -- forty percent of all the wetlands in the country -- that are at risk in the Gulf of Mexico and the hundreds of species threatened by the spill, some possibly with extinction. 

This bipartisan commission is our best chance to determine what really happened and to protect us from future disasters. I hope you will stand with me today and send a message to Washington that New York and the nation expect us to act. 

I know you share my empathy with the citizens of the Gulf Coast and the concern for the workers that are helping lead the clean-up. Thank you for standing with me as we search for the truth about what caused this tragedy and to help heal the region. 

On June 15, President Barack Obama gave a speech about the oil spill and our the "battle plan" for making this right:

On April 20th, an explosion ripped through BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, about forty miles off the coast of Louisiana.  Eleven workers lost their lives.  Seventeen others were injured.  And soon, nearly a mile beneath the surface of the ocean, oil began spewing into the water.

. . .

Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.  And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days.  The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years. 

But make no mistake:  we will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long it takes.  We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused.  And we will do whatever’s necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy. 

Tonight I’d like to lay out for you what our battle plan is going forward:  what we’re doing to clean up the oil, what we’re doing to help our neighbors in the Gulf, and what we’re doing to make sure that a catastrophe like this never happens again. 

(Go read the battle plan here.)

Daily, I get entreaties from friends via a variety of mediums (largely social media sites) to boycott BP.

I'm not going to do that.

I know. You are thinking not super cool things about that decision. Fair enough, but let me explain why I -- a Texas Gulf Coast resident who lives near the BP refinery that exploded a few years back, who has seen oil slicks hit her beach before, who knows that the fishing industry here has barely recovered from the big hurricane (Ike, aka The Other Hurricane Everyone Forgets but that Was Hugely Devastating to this Region), and who is usually in favor of sending strong messages to corporate offenders -- don't support boycotting BP.

On June 16, this is what Julie Pippert said:

I don't like passive activism, especially plans that aren't well-thought out and that have a high possibility of not only not achieving the main objective, but that are likely to create a lot of innocent collateral damage. Yes, that's how I see boycotting BP. Also, I don't think it's the best effort or strategy to achieve the desired results: to teach BP to ensure better safety and protections for the environment and workers, and to have better solutions when accidents do happen.

BP is a major employer in my area. Obviously. Their economic health affects my economic health. Unlike many in my community who think any notion of community (as I define it) equates to socialism, the bottom line fact and truth is that we are part of a collective and affect one another.

UPDATED TO ADD (what I in my rush left out): Plus, many individuals, and franchises, comprise the whole of BP. So when you boycott a gas station, whose pocket do you hurt the most? /UPDATE

Further, BP isn't the only rodeo in town.

We've (by which I mean a variety of groups, including local environmental ones) been after these guys forever about safety and environmental problems.

They smile, wave, assure everyone they are "working on it" and hand out checks to any hands in the vicinity.

I confess, I've benefitted financially. Two playgrounds, one for my neighborhood and one for the elementary school, exist due to money that came in, one way or another, from the oil and gas industry, and the chemical industry.

I can criticize their safety violations. I think we all should. It was the factor here in this catastrophe. BP has been under the gun for safety violations before, too.

But.

The EPA and other enforcement agencies are sort of "in name only" with extremely limited ability to enforce. Clearly many companies won't police themselves. Clearly the policing agencies can't/won't police.

But the real problem is us, we the people. We won't in general make choices to reduce consumption.

I personally do not prefer the "Boycott BP" plan. If they go bankrupt all is lost. Some of the Louisiana fisherman moved over to my area to fish, but we are losing some of our fishing waters, too. People will need compensation. Plus, what does this achieve? BP has a crisis and they need to get their heads straight. I agree.

I would back a "Boycott personal consumption" plan. 

I would back "demand better fuel efficiency" and "drive less, carpool more" and "bike local" and "public transportation" and "hybrid buses for schools" and so forth. 

But that's hard. It's hard to change personal habits, especially lifestyle ones of habit and convenience.

So much easier to just boycott BP. Especially when it's just as simple as clicking Like on Facebook.

In all honesty I perceive this as cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

But like I said in my opening caveat, I'm between a rock and a hard place. As a Gulf Coast resident, we are so dependent on oil and gas and fishing.

Everyone at NASA is waiting for pink slips. Losing another big employer would seriously harm my area.

Frankly, the companies have a responsibility but so do we.

I save my anger for myself at still driving a gas-driven vehicle, even if I can stretch a tank two weeks. For using so much petroleum dependent products.

I can't control a lot but I can control my actions. 

What do I think the battle plan should be, on top of a big executive and congressional Come to Jesus with BP and instead of a BP boycott?

I think we should make smarter environmental choices. Us. We the people.

You want to make a statement to BP? You want to make a statement to the government? To all oil and gas and environment and consumption?

REQUIRE ALL PUBLIC BUILDINGS TO BE LEED CERTIFIED.

GO GREEN BUILDING.

If you look it up and do some research, you'll find that green building is not high cost, but is high savings. You'll find out that if we green our buildings, it will have a greater impact than if every single one of us quit driving.

Yes, I said impact. It is a strong enough effect to liken it to a meteor hit.

According to the USGBC:

The built environment has a profound impact on our natural environment, economy, health, and productivity. 

In the United States alone, buildings account for: 
•    72% of electricity consumption,
•    39% of energy use,
•    38% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,
•    40% of raw materials use,
•    30% of waste output (136 million tons annually), and
•    14% of potable water consumption.

More statistics on the built environment in the U.S. and the growing size of USGBC membership and LEED are available in our Green Building Facts document.

What we need to drive is this: greening public buildings. 

You want to get behind a movement that will have real impact? That will reduce consumption? That will have a huge effect on offshore drilling? That will send a big message to oil and gas as well as politicians and beyond? This is it.

Comments

[Kim Z]

Plus, most BP stations are independently owned franchises, so boycotting them will hurt small business owners well before BP starts to notice.

[Sarah Granger]

Thank you Julie. I think you've hit this on the mark in so many ways.

The other thing we can do is push for more investment in clean technology in general. And push for oil companies to do some of that investing. Eventually oil will dry up and they will have to come up with other ways of supplying energy to stay in business.

I spent my weekend at the Truman National Security Project conference in Washington DC and it's even more clear to me how tied oil is to national security. I won't go into the details here, but if our resources keep going to cleaning up environmental disasters and fighting wars that relate to oil, we have less resources to put toward preventing nuclear attacks, cyber attacks or other threats. And the less we have to put toward prevention. It's a vicious cycle.

The other point I want to make is that before this incident, most people thought BP were the good guys in oil, as oil companies go. They're British based, they generally have high quality products, and they had a decent global reputation. I'm not sure they're any better or any worse than other oil companies even after this disaster - just more of their poor practices and bad decisions have been made public.

I think there should be greater safeguards, oversight and accountability in general applied to oil companies moving forward, regardless of who they are. And that, I'm afraid, goes back to the Bush era. Too much lenience was granted these companies and that needs to stop. I don't want them to go out of business either; I just want them to change their business, and that takes courage as well as advocacy from the public.

[Julie Pippert]

Kim Z, how funny, I was editing as you commented. Great minds! Yes, very true. Very excellent point.

Sarah, exactly, all that you said is so very germane to this and yet, we can't get to the practical from the politics sometimes. ITA with your last paragraph.

[corina]

I agree. While BP is the cause of this environmental disaster, no one is looking at themselves as how they are culpable. I heard people being interviewed at a gas station last week on NPR. Everyone there was UP IN ARMS about the spill. Yet they did not see their part in it at all. Furthermore, they were not willing to change any of their habits. They made excuses or justified all of it. This is what has to change.

[Annie]

I know I commented on twitter about this - but this post has stuck with me all day! I am no oil trading expert, but I'm guessing that since oil is traded as any other commodity - who's to say that you're not pumping BP drilled oil in any gas station you use anyway?

What kills me is all the conservative reaction to Obama's speech today, ripping it apart accusing the president of using this to push his political agenda on clean energy. Why is it so difficult for some to see that the two issues are intrinsically linked? And his agenda is after all what got him there in the first place - so I wish they'd all just buckle down and 'git r done!'

[Julie @ The Mom Slant]

Julie, this is so smart. Our personal dependence and our shifting priorities with respect to business and government are contributing factors that we can't ignore. Plenty of responsibility to go around.

[Karoli]

I totally agree with both Julies. And when you think about it, my thoughts on consumption do dovetail with this. If we all agree that the goal is to ultimately reolace the oil industry with cleaner, safer, greener technologies, then logically we should change our thought processes to a conservationist but not draconian view.

Part of what has bothered me so about this disaster is how easily we slipped into blame mode. It's BP, it's lack of government regulation, it's the President's fault etc, etc. Conservatives (ha! A misnomer if ever there was one) blame the President until they can't, and then they deny the problem. We all understand their motive.

Your thoughts on green buildings are right on, and would push us all in the right direction without pulling the rug out from under communities and small station owners. I guess my only question is what kind of investment it would take and whether the second stimulus bill would include it.

The President has been consistent on this: the way to boost the economy is through green technology. Now we have to figure out how to bypass sold out BlueDogs and Republicans to get the job done.

(any weird words or typos are the fault of my iPad and/or autocorrect)

[Julie Pippert]

Karoli, Public buildings, especially schools, are constantly under renovation, refitting, remodeling, and new building. There are already funds in play for that. That's the beauty of the Green Building Plan. You don't even need to start with a big special fund. Just do what you are already doing but do it Green.

People tend this this will be very very very expensive and will cost so much more.

As the wife of a LEED certified architectural professional who works on green building, I have heard and learned a lot, including that it really doesn't carry that big price tag. It might cost more in some areas but cost less in others, coming out, in the end, on balance. It's not like the difference between $.99 regular ketchup and $3.99 organic we all experience in the grocery store.

Plus, it creates a healthier and safer internal environment. I'm set on that for schools, which is exactly where we should begin.

Julie, exactly! And so much more constructive (HA!) to get into a solve cycle.

Corina, totally agree.

Annie, wow, yes, excellent point! I wonder about that now! It seems so clear to me that we need a real solution, not some assuagement, so yes, I too am baffled why it's not this clear.

[Debbie Owensby Moore]

I am all for building more green buildings and investment in other clean technology. But as an individual, I can't force the government to shift their priorities. I CAN use my own recyclable grocery bags, refuse to drive a gas-guzzling SUV, group my errands, etc.

I can't force congress to pass legislation to break up the big banks. But I can move my money to a local credit union.

There is too much of a revolving door between government and the industries they regulate whether it's oil, banking, the military, etc. Regulations are only as good as the individuals that enforce them.

So, although I understand and agree with how boycotting BP hurts others, I think that individuals, feeling helpless, just want to do something. Even if they don't live on the gulf. That's why I haven't bought Exxon gas since the Valdez disaster.

[Painted Maypole]

you've put this into words so well. boycotting BP is huge around here (and not at all hard, since I can't tell you where the closest BP station is). It's totally passive and not at all useful. We need to do things that are useful. that truly will make a difference.

[paula schuck]

This is very well stated.