Public Citizen calls for a boycott of BP

Public Citizen is calling on consumers to boycott BP in the wake of the April 20 explosion on a BP-leased rig that is causing 210,000 gallons of oil to gush into the Gulf of Mexico every day.

In one of the largest oil spills in U.S. history, 11 oil workers are dead and the spill continues to worsen.

However, BP continues to doubletalk on its responsibility and its liability, said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization.

"BP must pay," Weissman said. "A consumer boycott will deliver that message and give people a way to act on their anger. We are urging people to send a clear message to BP that its shoddy oversight of this project and its history of environmental and worker safety violations is unforgivable."

Public Citizen urges consumers to Take the Beyond BP Pledge at http://www.citizen.org/boycott-bp.

The pledge asks people to boycott BP gas for three months. Public Citizen has also launched a Facebook group, "1,000,000 Strong to Boycott BP."

"BP made a conscious decision not to install a $500,000 safety device that could have prevented the Gulf disaster," Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said in an announcement about the boycott. "A company that made $14 billion in profits in 2009 – a bad year – refused to spend a fraction of a percent of its profits to safeguard against what is fast becoming the worst oil spill of all time. The sheer greed at the expense of safety and the environment is mind-boggling."

BP has one of the worst environmental and safety records of any oil company operating in the U.S., according to Public Citizen. BP has pleaded guilty in the last few years to two crimes and paid more than $730 million in fines, penalties, and settlements for environmental crimes, willful disregard for workplace safety, and energy market manipulation. See "Cost of Doing Business: BP’s $730 in Fines/Settlements Plus Two Criminal Convictions" for details.

"There are other places to buy gas," Weissman said. "While no oil company is a stellar corporate citizen, BP is a particularly bad and irresponsible actor. We want the company to feel the extent of the public’s wrath."

The BP disaster highlights the need to stop offshore drilling expansion and end our national addiction to oil, Public Citizen believes. "It also emphasizes how crucial it is to hold Big Oil accountable," Slocum said. "The BP boycott is a way to start."