Exxon Valdez Ethics

The Prince William Sound, a long-travelled route for the transfer of oil, fell claim to the wreck of an Exxon-Valdez oil tanker, polluting the water and costing Exxon Valdez several billion dollars in reparations. 1,181 miles of the coastline of Alaska were affected and the marine life of Alaskan coast was devastated due to the millions of gallons of crude oil spilled. [1] Due to the nature of the spill, Exxon Valdez could be held directly accountable for the spillage, with no fault falling on ship construction and very little being attributed to the individual crew. In comparison, the First Energy Corporation’s malfunctions caused a chain reaction of the mistakes and unfortunate timing of malfunctions across many other companies in a catastrophe of communication.

According to the ABET code of ethics, it appears as if the Engineers involved did attempt to benefit the welfare of the public by making their choices. [2] However, compensation is not based solely upon whether engineers abide by their ethics. From the summary, the direct causes of the incident occurred due to accidents and mistakes, which aren’t an ethical dilemma. Regardless of the ethics behind the situation, the company should be at fault for reparations due to the nature of blame and economics. On an individual basis, cases caused by accidents seemingly should not require recompense. If this were the case though, massive deficits would form due to the imperfection of humanity that could easily be avoided with the at fault party repaying. Looking at the Exxon Valdez spill, at the basis of it, the fault was an accident. The wreck was caused by a simple miscommunication between the captain and the helmsman of the ship, which led to a course directly towards icebergs, and thus, the crash.