There is a Shell gas station near my house. I needed gas this morning and it would have been convenient to go there but I knew Shell was partly owned by the Brits, which made me think of BP (British Petroleum) and thinking it might be a BP gas station, I did a U-turn and went to Chevron instead.
Screw BP, considering its pathetic response to cleaning up the gulf oil spill and its shoddy operation of a dangerous, deep-water oil drilling platform, I’ll be damned if I’ll give them another dime of my money.
But, thanks to the wonderful world wide web (commonly referred to as the “Internets” by a former U.S. President whose name rhymes with Bush) I looked up who owns Shell and it’s not BP.
So I went to BP’s site to see if it sells gas in Tucson. It does, at ARCO stations.
Sorry ARCO, no more gas purchases from me, even if you are the cheapest in town.
Since BP grosses about $250,000,000,000 a year, denying it my $1,000 a year in gas purchases is more symbolic than punitive. But then, that’s the point of boycotts. It makes me feel better and that I’m doing some small part to help those poor blighters on the Gulf Coast.
Since I’m not able to afford taking a leave of absence to fly to Louisiana to clean off oily sea gulls this will have to suffice as my way of helping, such as it is.
In case you’re wondering, here’s the list of stations in Tucson selling BP gas:
ARCO
3825 W ORANGE GROVE
ARCO
2790 W RUTHRAUFF RD
ARCO
2800 N ORACLE RD
ARCO
802 W SPEEDWAY BLVD
AMPM
3601 S PARK AVE
ARCO
501 W IRVINGTON RD
ARCO
4881 S CAMPBELL
ARCO
7601 E TANQUE VERDE
ARCO
2891 W VALENCIA RD
AMPM
2450 E VALENCIA RD
From now on, I’m buying gas at Diamond Shamrock, Chevron or Exxon (oh . . . wait, scratch that last one).