We're Not Gonna Take It ... Anymore! (Maybe)

By Jocelyn Geboy in News on Aug 6, 2007 6:02PM

Going to Lollapalooza, we saw all sorts of oddities, curiosities and plenty of people handing out shit. The one group we stopped to talk to was the Chicago Park District, who were taking signatures for a petition to help stop BP/Amoco dumping their industrial waste into Lake Michigan over in Whiting, Ind. Point blank, it sucks. As someone on a message board commented, "even animals know not to defecate in their drinking water." No kidding.

We were happy to see that Eddie Vedder has lost none of his fire for good causes; he told the audience Sunday night about the petition and how important it was to fight BP/Amoco. He beseeched the crowd to make a different choice when buying gas, and then led the crowd in an impromptu song — "Don't go/BP Amoco." A fellow Chicagoista noted, "That may have been one of their catchiest songs in the last five years." As far as a pop hook, he's got something there.

Even more encouraging is that Alderman Ed Burke is also offering up a solution to the "Don't go/BP Amoco" refrain. He is putting forth an order that would cut off BP Amoco in that city vehicles would no longer use BP gas cards to fuel up. To make things even more serious, he is suggesting that the city deny three major banks who share corporate directors with BP from city bond deals unless the oil company changes its tune. Yeah!

This is exactly the sort of action that makes sense and will really hurt BP — getting them in the bank account. It wouldn't hurt for all of us to blow past there and check out some other gas station, too. If you want to help, you can sign this online petition.

Untitled by pntphoto.