OPINION: The shutdowns taking place at oil patches Outside prove beyond question that the message in BP, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon's $16 million ad campaign to influence Alaskan voters was not true. Somewhere high up in a London tower, BP's board members got a knee slapping laugh as they read Roger Marks' April 25 Alaska Dispatch News commentary justifying the Alaska Legislature's decision to take money from public savings and pay BP to haul our oil away.