This is stupid

[Dark Jaguar]

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I think these companies need a rude awakening that their internal policies have zero authority over anyone not working for them, none, notta, nothing. Company policies are not laws.

[Dark Jaguar]

Meanwhile as humans keep focusing too much on humans, this is happening:

<img src="http://static.businessinsider.com/image/4c19370a7f8b9a4236130000/oilwavelatest.jpg">

[Great Rumbler]

Putting BP in charge of this whole operation is just ridiculous.

[Geno]

BP is fucking incompetent. They should pay for the cleanup but not be in charge of it.

[Dark Jaguar]

Putting BP in charge of this whole operation is just ridiculous.

Agreed. While they do have all the information about their own pipes, they should be forced to surrender their data to more competent groups.

[Darunia]

That's incredibly stupid. And BP is failing incredibly.

I'm more shocked, however, by that picture of the wave. I hadn't seen anything so clearly defining the damage until I saw that wave.

[Geno]

You mean that's real and not a Photoshopped hyperbole? Damn. I knew it was bad, but... damn.

[Darunia]

Is it real? If it's fake it's mighty convincing.

[Dark Jaguar]

It's real alright. It's been all over the news sites.

[A Black Falcon]

Many tens of thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the ocean every single day for months and you're surprised that there is a lot of oil in the sea? Really?

This is probably America's worst environmental disaster ever. And it's getting worse every day that more oil is spilling.

[EdenMaster]

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[Geno]

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to downplay how bad I believed the oil spill to be. I see coverage of it every day, and as I live in Alabama, one of the gulf coast states, I see it on the front page of our local newspaper every time I go to the store where I work. I guess I didn't expect the waves to look quite like that, to the point where there's more oil in the gulf than water.

Just... damn. This is some fucked up shit, seriously. This might just be the biggest environmental disaster in human history. I hear hurricane season this year is going to be pretty bad too... imagine if the gulf coast experienced a hurricane of Katrina proportions while there's this much oil in the gulf. The longer the oil continues to leak, the more I lose faith in humanity, to think that so-called professionals could allow this to happen.

Also, I've seen that video before, EdenMaster. Funny shit. Sadly, it's accurate. :(

EDIT:

[Darunia]

Many tens of thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the ocean every single day for months and you're surprised that there is a lot of oil in the sea? Really?



I apologize, I must have been napping during that lecture in my fluid dynamics class at Harvard that involved how much sludge will wash onto the Gulf Coast shoreline in the event of a major catastrophe. I knew I should have taken notes!

You can say "bajillion gallons a day for a zillion years" but those are just numbers... I have no way of knowing how dense and how visible the damage will be on a particular stretch of beach. If I had seen a picture with zero visible oil I would have believed it were true, too. The ocean is vast and deep and there are many, many thousands of miles of coastline. Deriding us because we take that picture with a grain of salt is folly because there is no way that the layman could have KNOWN it were authentic just based upon the numbers we hear in the news.

Furthermore, I bet you that this is an extremely bad instance of beach here, and the vast majority is far less visibly stained. I bet you can't walk up and down the Louisiana coast and see this yellow, black befouled much as dense as here.

[Weltall]

I'm going to mention one thing that no one seems to consider.

The whole world is RAR KILL THE BP!!!!!! This is understandable, but also stupid. The people directly involved in this catastrophe should face criminal charges. The company itself should pay for the damages it caused, it that's even possible.

But, bear in mind that BP is a huge company, and only a tiny percentage of its employees were involved in this fuck-up.

Now, I'm the type of driver who always hunts for the cheapest gas he can find, and usually, BP ain't it, but bear in mind that if you decide to boycott BP as a means to punish them, the franchisees who actually operate the stations, and their employees (few, if any, of whom are actually employed by BP), are going to suffer decapitation long before the company itself dies the death of a thousand cuts. They aren't to blame for this, but they're the ones who will really suffer.

This is really a big shame for BP, too, because of the major petroleum companies, they have been one of the most willing to research and develop alternative energy sources. They are one of the world's leading manufacturers of solar panels.

[alien space marine]

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Bp Spoof ad

[Geno]

I'm going to mention one thing that no one seems to consider.

The whole world is RAR KILL THE BP!!!!!! This is understandable, but also stupid. The people directly involved in this catastrophe should face criminal charges. The company itself should pay for the damages it caused, it that's even possible.

But, bear in mind that BP is a huge company, and only a tiny percentage of its employees were involved in this fuck-up.

Now, I'm the type of driver who always hunts for the cheapest gas he can find, and usually, BP ain't it, but bear in mind that if you decide to boycott BP as a means to punish them, the franchisees who actually operate the stations, and their employees (few, if any, of whom are actually employed by BP), are going to suffer decapitation long before the company itself dies the death of a thousand cuts. They aren't to blame for this, but they're the ones who will really suffer.

This is really a big shame for BP, too, because of the major petroleum companies, they have been one of the most willing to research and develop alternative energy sources. They are one of the world's leading manufacturers of solar panels.

True, hence why all the BPs around the gulf coast are changing into Chevrons. In the worst case scenario, the BP name will be permanently dropped from all existing gas stations, though nothing else will change.

I rarely go to BP anyway for the very reason you gave: they tend to be among the pricier gas stations. I'd be perfectly content if the dumbasses in charge faced criminal charges and were forced to pay for the cleanup effort. As far as boycotting BP goes, I rarely went there to begin with, so I couldn't contribute much to this effort anyway. I bought beer there a few times and that was about it.

[Darunia]

There are very few Bp stations in Massachusetts. They're a relative new comer to the region. I also only go to where it's the cheapest, and around here, currently, that's almsot always either Hess or Prime Energy... currently, btw, that's $2.59/gallon.

I do, on the other hand, use my choice as a consumer as a political tool.

While I would not go out of my way to avoid BP (if they're cheapest, I will go there,) I WILL, and I WILL CONTINUE TO, boycott Citgo.


BP > Hugo Chavez.

[Weltall]

Kinda the same deal, there.

[Fittisize]

I don't believe BP stations exists in Canada, but the company is massively invested in the Alberta tar sands. They're poisioning the water and causing massive increases in cancer rates in some of the Aboriginal communites up there. Well, them and many others, of course. Thousands of ducks die annually because they land in oil-sludged ponds and can't fly away, so the response has been to build scarecrows out of coveralls and hardhats and stick them in there. It's an absolute fucking disgrace what they're doing up there, and the environmental damage is far worse than what's happening in the Gulf Coast. I wouldn't even know where to begin if I were to boycot BP because all of these energy companies are destroying the environment and people's livelihoods. They're all evil, soulless, despicable corporations. I'd have to boycot everything, but that's just not going to work, so I just go about my life instead.

[A Black Falcon]

The whole world is RAR KILL THE BP!!!!!! This is understandable, but also stupid. The people directly involved in this catastrophe should face criminal charges. The company itself should pay for the damages it caused, it that's even possible.

But, bear in mind that BP is a huge company, and only a tiny percentage of its employees were involved in this fuck-up.

BP has a much worse safety record than the other major oil companies. I think that says a lot about their corporate culture... and the more we hear about this disaster, the more and more preventable it seems like it would have been had BP focused more on safety and less on saving money and maximizing profit...

[Fittisize]

BP has a much worse safety record than the other major oil companies. I think that says a lot about their corporate culture... and the more we hear about this disaster, the more and more preventable it seems like it would have been had BP focused more on safety and less on saving money and maximizing profit...

Yes indeed, while only a tiny percentage were directly responsible for Deepwater Horizon, many other "tiny percentages" around the world are also directly responsible for many of BP's other fuck-ups. Add it all together and it paints a very startling picture of what that corporation is all about.

[Dark Jaguar]

Indeed, and a boycott may hurt other employees of gas station franchises, but in the long run those stations are best served by switching to another provider. Sometimes this sort of cost is still worth paying.

[A Black Falcon]

My parents boycotted Exxon for many, many years after the Exxon Valdez; still I'd rather go somewhere else if there is a choice. And BP is clearly worse than Exxon, so I think it's safe to say I will try to not get gas there much... though yes, there aren't many of their stations up here.

[Dark Jaguar]

Exxon has cleaned up their act, with a great safety record in recent years. If BP, years from now, goes through the same internal changes and becomes safe, any boycott can end. If they don't survive, too bad.

The thing is, chains of command where a company's leaders can be directly shown to have created the culture or general policy of operations really don't deserve to keep their positions once these things happen. Someone who steals a car gets more jail time than someone who steals the future of an entire section of coastland. Hmm...

[lazyfatbum]

I like how the oil spill workers are all look like locals who do construction.

This is something we'll be paying for for at least 10 years, probably more. You'd think they would get some professionals on the job.

[Geno]

We shouldn't be paying anything. BP should be paying for all of this, including reparations to the fishermen and other coastal workers whose lives have been thrown for a loop because of the oil spill.

[Great Rumbler]

We shouldn't be paying anything. BP should be paying for all of this, including reparations to the fishermen and other coastal workers whose lives have been thrown for a loop because of the oil spill.

I don't think he was talking about money-wise. Or, maybe he was, but I didn't take it that way.

[lazyfatbum]

Yeah, I meant paying for it in terms of our gulf and coast lines being destroyed.

[Dark Jaguar]

Okay England, you can have the east coast back. We're pretty much done with it now.

So like, I guess England's secret hatred about our dumping their tea in the harbor they decided to dump their "Texas tea" in our gulf.

[Darunia]

So like, I guess England's secret hatred about our dumping their tea in the harbor they decided to dump their "Texas tea" in our gulf.

Lol

That's one way to think of it.

[A Black Falcon]

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Good ad from the Democratic party here, the Republicans have definitely made it clear how they'd prefer to treat Big Oil...

[Dark Jaguar]

That's a stupid position, but to be "fair" (not really), he was basically using a talking point from the republican playbook. He wasn't actually thinking, he was just doing the whole "support business against government interference" thing. You know, an idea based on some originally good principles twisted so out of any relation to what's good for actual people that it's just pointless (and harmful) rhetoric at this point.

I would like to make clear that due process is still the law in this country, and "stealing" money from BP here without a trial would certainly be wrong. However, BP has already admitted fault and is offering the money themselves. There's no extortion here, just the government telling them that they need to stick to their promises.

I still think a good round of humiliation in the courts is in order, though honestly I'm not sure exactly what the laws are regarding legal process against a foreign company. Eh, skewer them in both countries.

[Weltall]

Which 2008 presidential candidate received twice as much money from BP as the other in the form of campaign contributions?

Go ahead.

I'll wait.

[Geno]

That's BP supporting Obama, not Obama supporting BP. :)

One wonders if Chevron or Citgo would have gotten a grace period of two months before a presidential ass-kicking if all other factors were identical.

One also wonders, more importantly, why this finger of the so-called 'big oil' favored a Democrat over a Republican.