Why you shouldn't boycott BP stations

You're driving down the road and are about to run out of gas. You have to fill the tank, and quick. You find two stations, right across the street from each other. One has a BP sign, the other is a Motomart, Quiktrip, or some other big regional chain.

The BP sign brings to mind oil-soaked pelicans, mucky beaches littered with tar balls, and the image of oil gushing from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. As an act of protest, you choose to patronize the non-BP station.

Where do you think that gas you just bought at the non-BP station came from? Quiktrip and Motomart don't explore for oil and refine their own gasoline. They buy it on the wholesale market from whoever has the lowest price.

They call this "unbranded gasoline." You'll notice that QT and Motomart don't have any particular oil company's logos displayed at any of their stores. That's what makes them unbranded -- the fact that they don't sell just one brand of gasoline.

Of course, because of shared pipelines, that gasoline you're buying from the Shell station may not necessarily have been produced by Shell. And the BP station may not be selling BP gas, either. It's really hard to tell what you're actually getting, as all gas is pretty much the same (before additives, anyway.)

So if you're interested in boycotting BP, you should just boycott all gas stations, period, since you can't be entirely certain that what you're buying at QT and Motomart isn't BP gas. Heck, you might even have a better shot at getting non-BP gas at a BP station.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of oil companies whatsoever, but I do recognize that, at present, oil is a necessary evil. I'd boycott all gas stations if I could, but my life runs on 87 octane gasoline, and yours probably does, too.

There's another reason why you shouldn't boycott BP stations: they are independently owned. It's very likely that they are owned by people in your community. They have nothing to do with BP, the company. They were just unfortunate enough to sign a branding agreement that involves the use of BP logos. As I said earlier, they may not even be selling BP gasoline. But the big chains almost certainly are. They just don't have to tell you where it came from. That's because they probably don't even know where it came from.

Quiktrip, Motomart, and the other big chains are just that -- big chains. They're not franchises. They're all company-owned and managed, unlike the mom and pop BP station across the street.

So, if you still insist on boycotting BP stations, just know that by doing so, you won't be hurting the guys who ruined the Gulf of Mexico nearly as much as you might be hurting your own neighbors.