Now, that's escalation! More symbolic than anything, but still, a response that isn't just hand-wringing.
City may quit use of BP in cars:
Chicago city vehicles would no longer use BP-issued gas credit cards until the company backtracks on plans to dump more pollutants into Lake Michigan under an order drafted by Ald. Edward Burke (14th) and advanced Thursday by a pair of City Council committees.
Burke, chairman of the Finance Committee, said he would also like to take an extra step and bar three major banks - who he said share corporate directors with BP - from future city bond deals unless the oil company changes its plans.
... Burke on Thursday said 'the only thing that will get [BP's] attention is to hit it in the pocketbook.'Burke said the city has 97 BP gas credit cards, most of them used by the Police Department. He said his staff was still researching what other city business, such as bulk fuel purchases, the city may have with the company.
The order to cut off the gas-card business was approved unanimously during a joint public hearing Thursday of the Committees on Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities, and Parks and Recreation. The measure will go to the full City Council in September.
Burke also called on Chicagoans to boycott BP gas stations and products unless the company changes its plans.
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