The dirty little secret behind British Petroleum

I never buy BP gas. I only buy from companies who stand by the products they sell.

For some time now, BP has been running ads designed to trick people into thinking that they don't really sell oil and gas - or that their products are somehow different than the oil produced by other oil companies.

BP is ashamed of the products they sell and they're spending millions trying to deceive people into thinking that they're not REALLY selling what you think they're selling. This is called a lie and I avoid liars at all costs.

Today I noticed an ad for British Petroleum and was struck by the following announcement, "We're investing up to 8 billion dollars over 10 years to provide electrical power from solar, wind, hydrogen and natural gas."

Forget the fact that BP is still an OIL company. Forget the fact that BP makes 99% of its money from the sale and export of fossil fuels...And forget the fact that this kind of ad implies that BP Gasoline is more "environmentally friendly" than Shell and Exonn-Mobil.

A couple of things in this ad got my attention:

1. With sales of $268 billion, BP ranked #4 on the list of Fortune Global 500. So, $8 billion dollars over ten years means BP is "investing" about 4 tenths of 1% of its annual sales on wind, solar, blah, blah, blah.
2. I am always skeptical when I see the words "up to". When BP says, "We're investing up to 8 billion dollars over 10 years..." This could mean as little as one dollar over 10 years or as much as $8 billion, I guess depending on their mood.
3. BP is one of the world's largest manufacturers of Solar Panels. This means, when they claim to be "investing" in solar, they're simply spending money in their solar division - On things like; advertising, bigger lunch rooms, a new roof on their manufacturing plant, etc. Not to mention, one solar panel requires more energy to produce than that panel will generate in it's lifetime.
   
4. Natural Gas: It's funny how natural gas is included in this list. After all, natural gas is still a green house gas.