Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Boycott BP

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Boycott BP
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
August 17, 2007


If BP insists on dumping more pollutants into our lake, it's time for us to stop pumping its gas into our tanks. We're calling for an all-out boycott of BP gas. Maybe then, BP will realize that hollow promises aren't good enough for customers.
Maybe then, they'll be ready "to commit" to keeping Lake Michigan clean. BP America vice chairman Stephen A. Elbert vowed Wednesday only to look into incorporating new technologies to reduce additional pollutants into the lake.

But he also stood by the company's plans to discharge 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge particles into the lake as BP moves forward with a $3 billion expansion of its Whiting, Ind., refinery. The water is not going to be "damaged," Elbert claimed.

Environmental activists and city officials think differently, and for at least a month have been raising their objections to Indiana's decision to issue a permit to BP. Their concerns have pretty much fallen on deaf ears -- until this week when BP executives met with them to discuss more environmentally friendly alternatives.

Even if BP is working within the parameters of federal and state regulations, putting extra pollutants into our major drinking water source is an abysmal option. The lake, as Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) put it, is our Yellowstone Park, our Grand Canyon. No one would dare mess with those national treasures. Why mess with ours?

At this point, the only clear message BP is sending is that it wants to have its cake and eat it too. BP executives want their company to be known as the greenest -- as suggested by its logo, meant to resemble a sunflower and show its commitment to the environment. But they also want to dump in our lakes. They can't have it both ways.

That's why we have to help them decide which road they'll choose by hitting their pocketbooks -- at least until Sept. 1 when they'll return to Chicago to give Emanuel and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) an update on their plans.

Starting today, we should just drive on by those green, yellow and white gas pumps. Throw the BP credit cards into the salad spinner and kiss their Wild Bean Cafe goodbye.

Vote with your feet, er, wheels, and drive to another gas station.