Boycott BP if you must, but just read this story.

If you’re slighting BP gas stations over the oil spill, you might be hoping to stick it to the man.

But you might instead be sticking it to Steve Buchanan, local gas station owner. Or the 600 people employed by Buchanan’s Omaha-Council Bluffs chain. Or the other local station owners and their employees operating under a BP banner.

Around the country, the idea of punishing BP for a well blowout that has gushed oil in the Gulf of Mexico since April seems to be picking up steam.

Protesters picketed a BP station in Atlanta. A “Boycott BP” Facebook group has 695,000 fans and counting. More than 21,000 people have signed an online pledge, promoted by the group Public Citizen, to boycott BP for three months. In Ohio, a local station owner slashed prices to counteract the backlash.

Buchanan, who operates 25 Omaha-area BP stations, said he has heard a lot of concern from customers about the disaster, but he can’t pinpoint that the spill is to blame for any lost sales or has had any other effect on his chain. He said he gets the sense that some customers are avoiding his stations and that some employees are worried about losing their jobs.

Read more… at the Omaha World Herald Site