Context of '2001: BP Unveils Solar-Electric Canopies for Gas Stations'

A BP gas station in Indianapolis is outfitted with a solar-electric canopy built by BP Solar. The station is the first of a series of “BP Connect” stores, and is intended to serve as a model for all new or refurbished BP stores. The canopy uses translucent PV modules made of thin films of silicon on glass, the “PowerView Semi-Transparent Photovoltaic Module,” and is designed to double both as a power generation system and as a roof or a window. BP will incorporate the system into some 150 stations by 2001, having the modules replace conventional glass in walls, canopies, atriums, entrances, and facades in commercial and residential architecture. [US Department of Energy, 2002 ]

British Petroleum logo. [Source: British Petroleum]Officials from British Petroleum, including regional president Bob Malone, meet with Vice President Cheney’s energy task force (the National Energy Policy Development Group—see May 16, 2001). The BP representatives are part of a group of officials from some 20 different oil and drilling companies and organizations to meet with Cheney’s task force in March and April. The other organizations include the National Mining Association, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, and the American Petroleum Institute. The names of the various officials, executives, lobbyists, and representatives who meet with the task force will not be released until 2007 (see July 18, 2007). In November 2005, BP America CEO Ross Pillari will testify in a Senate hearing that he does not know about any such meetings (see November 16, 2005). [Washington Post, 11/16/2005; Washington Post, 7/18/2007]

Conservative radio host Jim Quinn, of the syndicated Quinn and Rose broadcast, tells his listeners that President Obama “is an African colonial” who “hates” Britain. Discussing the Obama administration’s response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Quinn says that BP (formerly British Petroleum), the company responsible for the spill, “stands for the two things that Obama hates the most in his life… the Brits and petroleum.” Quinn continues, “Let us not forget, he is… an African colonial,” and adds that “this guy’s got a hard on for the Brits in particular, and Western civilization in general.” [Media Matters, 6/11/2010] Quinn is echoing previous claims of Obama’s “African colonial” and “Afrocentric” sympathies (see December 26, 2007, January 16, 2008, June 25, 2009, June 29, 2009, November 17, 2009, and February 2, 2010). Quinn and his partner, Rose Tennent, have previously made racist allegations against Obama and his African-American supporters (see October 20, 2008), and Quinn has said that only American landowners should be allowed to vote (see October 21, 2008).