Guest Post: Why This Proud South Coaster Won't "Boycott BP"

(This is a Guest Post from John Leek's new blog: JohnLeek.com His new blog will focus mainly on the intersection of Christian faith and culture.  Head on over and say hello!)

As a resident of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, who has fished in the Gulf and enjoyed the natural beauty of the marshes and islands, I have plenty of reason to be upset with British Petroleum.  They, and the folks they contract with, have made an awful mess and it can be incredibly upsetting to mind and body to watch the oil continue to move on the news.  Plus, BP seems to have a pattern of playing it fast and loose with those regulations meant to protect employees and the public.

BP needs to make this right and seems to be trying to do so.  Unfortunately some groups, including some I've supported in the past, have decided to "boycott BP."  They seem to want to encourage anger toward BP's individual gas stations for the purpose of gaining new contact information and donations.  This is troublesome because it is misdirecting anger and could hurt individual station owners.

These people seem to ignore the fact that most of these gas stations are owned by individual Americans, many of them immigrants, who are just as powerless to do anything about the spill as you and I.

I stopped by the gas station pictured here in Ocean Springs today and the cashier shared that business doesn't appear to have changed; so boycott talk may all be bluster, but its presence in antagonistic and unproductive.

As Christians we are taught to seek after truth and to do no harm to other people.  We should be careful to take care not to jump into attacking people for perceived wrongdoing.  We should especially be careful when in doing so we might harm people without cause and to no greater purpose.  Let's encourage our friends and neighbors to do the same.

Who is to blame for high the high price of oil? UPDATED!!

Here is a little history course for those of you with selective memory who think Bill Clinton is to blame for the high price of gas. What is even worse is the false ad produced by the "straight talk express" that lays the blame squarely upon the shoulders of Barack Obama. In a twisted irony the McCain accusation completely refutes his standing claim that Obama did nothing as a Senator and carried no influence in Washington . Well how did he wreck the oil markets then?

In 2001 our Vice President Dick Cheney held secret meetings with unidentified persons to write the Untied States energy policy for the Bush administration. The Bush administration felt like the citizens had no business knowing who was writing their energy policy.

In 2007 some of those names were revealed. Let us all recall that Exxon Mobile has posted record profits several times since this energy policy was enacted. Enron was found guilty of fraud, when they were jacking up the rates on granny, as they so crudely put it.

From the Washington Post:

A confidential list prepared by the Bush administration shows that Cheney and his aides had already held at least 40 meetings with interest groups, most of them from energy-producing industries. By the time of the meeting with environmental groups, according to a former White House official who provided the list to The Washington Post, the initial draft of the task force was substantially complete and President Bush had been briefed on its progress.

In all, about 300 groups and individuals met with staff members of the energy task force, including a handful who saw Cheney himself, according to the list, which was compiled in the summer of 2001. For six years, those names have been a closely guarded secret, thanks to a fierce legal battle waged by the White House. Some names have leaked out over the years, but most have remained hidden because of a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that agreed that the administration's internal deliberations ought to be shielded from outside scrutiny.

...

From the beginning, it was clear that Cheney was running the show, chairing meetings of the task force -- made up of about a dozen Cabinet officers and senior officials -- in his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Much of the task force's work was done by a six-person staff, led by its executive director, Andrew D. Lundquist, a former aide to Republican Sens. Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski of Alaska. In 2000, Lundquist was the Bush campaign's energy expert; Bush nicknamed him "Light Bulb."

Today, Lundquist is a lobbyist, and he has represented some of the companies who appeared before the task force, such as BP, Duke Energy and the American Petroleum Institute. He did not return phone calls for this article

Who do we know was there?

1. One of the first visitors, on Feb. 14, was James J. Rouse, then vice president of Exxon Mobil and a major donor to the Bush inauguration

2. A week later, longtime Bush supporter Kenneth L. Lay, then head of Enron Corp., came by for the first of two meetings

3. On March 5, some of the country's biggest electric utilities, including Duke Energy and Constellation Energy Group, had an audience with the task force staff.

4. British Petroleum representatives dropped by on March 22, one of about 20 oil and drilling companies to get meetings.

5. The National Mining Association, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America and the American Petroleum Institute were among three dozen trade associations that met with Cheney's staff, the document shows.

The list of participants' names and when they met with administration officials provides a clearer picture of the task force's priorities and bolsters previous reports that the review leaned heavily on oil and gas companies and on trade groups -- many of them big contributors to the Bush campaign and the Republican Party. But while it clears up much of the lingering uncertainty about who was granted access to present energy policy views to Cheney's staff, it does not entirely explain why the Bush administration fought so hard to keep it and other as-yet-unreleased internal memos secret.

The price of a gallon of gas was around a $1.50. The prices have nearly tripled under the Cheney-Exxon plan. How did the oil companies fare?

Exxon Mobil posts record profit of $10.7 billion

Record Earnings for Exxon

Shell and BP post record earnings

BP profits jump on back of record high oil prices

Enron Says, 'Oops'

UPDATE from July 31: Exxon breaks own record for biggest-ever profit