The BP oil disaster — we’re all guilty

From staff reports

For some of us, the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico seems like nothing more than a story on the nightly news — a calamity happening on the other side of our continent. Of course, it does affect us all, and it ought to force us to consume less oil — in the name of environmental protection here in the United States, and also to avoid financing corrupt oil oligarchies in foreign lands.

Imagine, if you will, an oil disaster of these proportions happening off the coast of Sleeping Bear. What would it do to our great lake; our beaches and ecosystems; our tourism economy? The provocative website www.IfItWasMyHome.com lets you enter your hometown as “ground zero” and imagine the damage. If a deep-sea rig blew up in Sleeping Bear Bay, the oil slick would spread from Minnesota to Gaylord, Manistee to Newberry.

As we hold BP, our government, and the parasitic oil lobby accountable, however, we shouldn’t single out the Empire gas station that flies under the “BP” banner. The local station on the corner of M-22 and M-72 is owned by Bear Lake-based Blarney Castle, which gets its crude from BP as well as a host of other immense oil companies. In truth, they’re all to blame for our nation’s current oil addiction, as are we, every time we fill up our tanks.