[An open letter response to Kevin Phelan, Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, BP Products North America]
Thank you for writing to me about how your company is doing everything possible to stop the leak and protect the shoreline. I had a feeling you'd be writing me; I'm surprised it's taken you this long to get around to it.
I pass several BP stations regularly here in South Florida. I've noticed there's rarely a car or truck in them, and the tone of your letter tells me that you've noticed that too. Maybe the number crunchers in your department believed that things would blow over. Maybe you figured we were so pissed off it was prudent to wait. Or maybe you just don't give a damn.
My money's on "don't give a damn," because your letter is just another attempt to hide behind yet another group of people whom your negligence and reckless disregard is slowly destroying. I'm talking about the "vast majority of [BP] stations [that are] locally owned and operated and employ more than 50,000 people across the United States."
I do feel sorry for these folks, but I also wonder why they believed in you when your history as an oil company is one disaster after another, and the investigations into those disasters reveal that you knew better but preferred to try and save a buck. A close look at the refinery fire in Texas City or the tundra along the Trans-Alaska pipeline should have predicted what happened on the Deepwater Horizon.
If your independent gas station owners had been taking care of business themselves, they could have already done what thousands of Citgo independent resellers did when their brand became tarnished by its association with Venezuela. They rebranded their stations with a logo that helped sales rather than hurt them.
Yes, Mr. Phelan, I have a BP credit card, but don't count on my support. I haven't bought more than a tankful of gas from your stations in several years, and that probably won't be changing at least as long as you keep hiding behind hollow words on form letters trying to drum up sympathy for people you've hurt. They didn't hurt your brand: you did.
You know how to solve this, because you've promised to mend your ways each time you've been caught. You can start gushing money in the gulf like your hapless well; you can start selling gas to your resellers at tremendous discounts; you can really put safety first, even though that delays production in ways you once thought unacceptable.
All these things will be a magnificent departure from what everyone expects from you; the story will tell itself, and you won't need to send weasel-worded letters to your customers.
[crossposted from pbcliberal.com]