The Oil Boycott

I have several columns ready for publication, but I keep getting other ones that take precedence, and that is the case again this week.

I received one of those “Boycott” emails that call for us to boycott Citgo and Petro Express, because Hugo Chavez owns them. Of course, there are other emails that call for boycotts of Exxon/ Mobile, because they buy most of their oil from Middle East countries, our supposed enemies.

Now Jesse Jackson has proposed a boycott of BP, because they caused this big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. That is a really great idea, because I guess that if we boycott BP they will clean up the oil spill more quickly. Or maybe BP will go out of business. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Well, aside from the fact that if we boycott all of those oil producers we probably won’t be able to buy gasoline from anyone, there is another more onerous problem. When we boycott the gas stations that sell under those brand names, we really aren’t hurting the oil companies. We’re hurting small business owners who are also our neighbors.

The big oil companies have contracts with huge buyers, like the Pentagon, Plastics companies, Power producers, Airlines, Railroads and trucking companies. Yes, Joe Public does use a lot of gasoline, but when he doesn’t buy, the companies raise the price to those other businesses. And guess who pays for those increases?

Another flaw in the boycott plan is that every oil company is part of a pool that shares petroleum from many different parts of the world. No company is fully independent of the others. If you want to boycott companies that buy from Venezuela, you had better boycott them all. Same with Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar or any other country you can name.

Back to the main reason not to boycott, the ones you really hurt are the little guys who run that particular franchised station. The station name is irrelevant; they all get gasoline from multiple sources, and even they don’t know what company supplied the shipment they got today or yesterday. It might be different every time.

Yes, I’ll admit that I have boycotted Citgo for years. However, I’m beginning to see the light, and this latest oil spill is part of my enlightenment. BP had some part in the spill, but my question is, “Why were they drilling a mile down in the Gulf?” I’ll tell you why, in case you don’t know. They cannot drill closer to shore and in shallow water, because the environmentalists have enough influence that it isn’t allowed by our government.

This huge oil spill wouldn’t have happened at all if BP had been given permission to drill on the continental shelf where they know there is plenty of oil. It would have been a lot less expensive to extract the oil, too, and BP would love that. So blame the federal government and try boycotting them by not paying your taxes. Where do you suppose that will get you?

In summary, quit the boycott fervor and get your gasoline wherever it is least expensive. We’ll all be better off for it in the long run, and you aren’t hurting anybody either way, so take the best option for yourself. I know I’m going to from now on.