Greenpeace "close every BP petrol station in London"

[Si Hunt]

BP petrol stations in central London have been shut down by environmental activists.

Campaign group Greenpeace claimed it had shut off the fuel supplies to all stations in the area. The oil company said about 20 had been closed.

BP said activists stopped the flow of fuel by flipping safety switches on forecourts, then removing them to prevent the petrol stations reopening.

Greenpeace said it wanted the company to adopt greener energy policies.

A BP spokesman said the petrol stations would be reopened as soon as it was safe to do so.

He described the stunt as "an irresponsible and childish act which is interfering with safety systems".

Normally I'm with Greenpeace, but I can't really see what this will achieve. On the day when BP announce record losses of 11bn and their name is mud in the US, do we really NEED Greenpeace to tell us they have done a bad thing? Besides, as far as I can see the only people this will really affect will be poor motorists in London unable to buy petrol. And it's not their fault is it!

It does all seem a bit childish and, from the statement above, dangerous.

I hate petrol companies, I really do. I wish we'd all just use hydrogen to power our cars. But there's an uneasy feeling throughout BP's recent crisis that we're forgetting they are a BRITISH company (that is what the 'B' stands for), and we have an economy to think about. And a very, very poorly one at that. Are our Kandy hands tightening around our own necks?

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Perhaps part of the issue is to do with large corporations in general.

Greenpeace seem to have a problem with the people running the petrol forecourts. These are not the same people who apparently cut corners in the drilling operations resulting in an explosion. The forecourts are owned by BP, but surely it's a completely different branch of the company.

I could understand such action if BP had run away from the problem and refused to clear it up. Yet they have spent a fortune trying to fix it. What's more, they can only spend the money they have. By hurting BP, they might be increasing the risk that financial difficulties could impinge on the clean-up operation. Not that closing the petrol stations in London for one morning is going to make a substantial difference.

[Llordllama]

Does this mean I won't be able to pop in for a cornetto today then? Guess I'll just use the Texaco garage across the road; whom I'm sure don't have ANY dodgy work practices or impending environmental disasters.

Wonder if all the greenies walked there, and used vehicles that used fuel eh?

[Rob McCow]

Or ate any food that needed to be transported using fuel. Or a computer made out of plastic to organise the protest. Or were wearing synthetic fibres... etc etc.

[Jason Thompson]

Greenpeace is an organisation that I feel has its heart in the right place with regard to the issues they campaign about, but whose actions I very rarely agree with. This is an absurd protest aimed at completely the wrong people and screwing up the general population in whose interests they claim to be acting. Shutting down a few petrol stations won't bring the public onto their side, and will only bring praise to the forecourt operators who get their petrol stations back up and running and supplying the fuel the motorists have been deprived of by this ridiculous organisation.

[Jon Masters]

I've never had much truck with Greenpeace - they employ large numbers of reserachers and scientists, but never come up with the solutions to problems, merely stamp up and down and wag their fingers. They have a very black and white view on their personal pet hates like fossil fuel and nuclear power that makes them very blinkered, as typified by the Brent Spar fiasco.

And, as in this case, they make a habit of going for the easiest, most news grabbing targets rather than the real sources of the problems.

[SiHart]

The activists might be better off going and helping with the clean up than tagetting a few forecourts in London.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

Si Hart speaks the truth.

Si.

[Llordllama]

I miss the days when Greenpeace boats like Rainbow Warrior would be featured on the nightly news. Although I guess these days I guess beyond petrolium the boats are floating listlessly out at sea...

[Jonno]

Not being a motorist, I'm not very au fait about petrol stations and so on, but is it just me that finds it very disturbing that any old Joe off the street can walk into a forecourt and sabotage it by flipping a few switches?! Not a very safe and secure system methinks...

[Rob McCow]

I'm sure there are cut-offs to prevent an explosion. In fact, it seems that they tripped these cut-offs to stop the petrol stations working.

I wonder if the staff tried to tackle the protesters? Though somehow I don't think a lazy, underpaid, unenthusiastic petrol station employee going up against a tofu-eating tree-hugger would have been much of a fight.

[Llordllama]

What I want to know is if any of the protesters had the chutzpah to walk into the Wild Bean Cafe (aka station shop) afterwards and buy a mars bar? Now THAT would have been class.

[Jason Thompson]

Not a very safe and secure system methinks...

On the contrary, it's a very safe and secure system. 'Safe', when you are dealing with flammable materials in large quantities under pressure, does not mean safe from being easily switched off.

The cut-offs, as Steve says, are indeed there to minimise danger of fire and explosion, and their very nature means they must be a) easily visible and b) easy to activate. They are the same as the big red emergency stop buttons on large mechanical equipment. If you can't find and press the stop switch in a matter of seconds people's safety is endangered and death may result.

The problem was that the protestors then removed the mechanism, preventing it from being reset. I don't know for sure, but I imagine the system is failsafe, in other words a failure of the cut-off by fatigue, misuse or malicious damage leads to locking the system in the cut-off position. The whole thing must then be repaired to get the petrol flowing again. For safe operation of these things you must be able to shut down the flow of petrol in seconds, and it must not be allowed to flow uncontrolled.

Ironically, the protestors have actually demonstrated that the petrol station forecourts have better safety systems than the pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico. Everything I've just said about safety in a petrol station applies on an even more significant scale on an underewater pipeline.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Normally I'm with Greenpeace, but I can't really see what this will achieve. On the day when BP announce record losses of 11bn and their name is mud in the US, do we really NEED Greenpeace to tell us they have done a bad thing? Besides, as far as I can see the only people this will really affect will be poor motorists in London unable to buy petrol. And it's not their fault is it!

It does all seem a bit childish and, from the statement above, dangerous.

I hate petrol companies, I really do. I wish we'd all just use hydrogen to power our cars. But there's an uneasy feeling throughout BP's recent crisis that we're forgetting they are a BRITISH company (that is what the 'B' stands for), and we have an economy to think about. And a very, very poorly one at that. Are our Kandy hands tightening around our own necks?

Si.

I find it odd so far that no-one has pointed out that the B doesn't actually stand for British anymore, given all the fuss that Obama kicked up by repeatedly calling it British Petroleum. The company changed it's name quite a few years ago precisely because it's not really British anymore.

Also, on some level you could quite reasonably argue that millions of motorists driving around in London, consuming petrol, aren't entirely unrelated to the continual efforts to obtain oil from increasingly inaccessible areas, which will inevitably lead to these sorts of disasters, whether the projects be well managed or not.

[MinaHarker]

I miss the days when Greenpeace boats like Rainbow Warrior would be featured on the nightly news. Although I guess these days I guess beyond petrolium the boats are floating listlessly out at sea...

Um, French terrorists blew the Rainbow Warrior up and killed someone who was on it.