What if several thousand people stopped buying gas at BP stations? Would BP notice? Would a boycott have any effect on its safety practices?
It's easy enough for me to say; there are not that many BP stations in my area. Also, the gas sold at them probably is not refined by BP. Retail gasoline is generally refined locally by a few refineries and blended according to formulas provided by each retailer.
However, would a boycott of BP give a message beyond BP, say to politicians who have knee jerk reactions to any interference in the so-called "free market" or to wimpy politicians who live in fear of such reactions. For how much time has been wasted see, "Obama and the Oil Spill", Thomas Friedman, New York Times, 2010-05-18.
I thought of doing a mashup for YouTube of testimony of how safe offshore drilling was combined with news footage of the spill. To save myself the trouble I did a search of YouTube for "BP oil spill rainy" where Rainey is an executive who testified before the Senate on how safe offshore drilling was. I hit pay dirt with "Play him off, Keyboard Cat (Sarah Palin, BP Oil Spill, Senator McCain) FAIL!!!!"
