This study analyses the controversy that has existed within general electric (GE). This is a company that has been running the electrical equipment plants. The company has been dumping wastes into Hudson River. The case involves recovery battle and the plight of dumping the Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson River in New York, which had accumulated to more than 1.3 million pounds into a 40 mile stretch of the Hudson River. The cleanup programs supported by EPA, most of the environmental groups and some government agencies led to a lot of controversies since GE was not ready to take responsibility for the dredging expenses and even after their little cooperation, the dredging process is never complete. Therefore, General Electric was bound to spend a lot of money during the cleanup of the river and the process has been named as the biggest environmental dredging ever. However, the entire process of the clean up was not liked by many people. Actually, political heat began to steam up with this situation and this political debate led to issues like how the political environmentalists accused GE of using …show more content…
Political instability is another ethical issue that arose as the PCBs removal dredging plan became charged politically with debate beginning in the fall of 2001. Destruction is another ethical issue observed from the Greens claimed that the GE and EPA used the terrorist attacks on the world's trade center and Pentagon through the incorporation of the priority of the cleanup plan. Incorporation was also observed as the Environmentalists who met with the EPA claimed that it was talking to a brick wall as their arguments were brushed
3-1. What global issues do you see here? What ethical/social responsibility issues do you see here?
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA is the result of a 1970 executive order by President Richard Nixon for the purpose of protecting the environment of the United States through regulation on business and citizens. Public opinion on the Environmental Protection Agency has been divided fairly evenly across the population of the United States as of recently, as compared to the widespread public concern of the 50’s and 60’s that led to the agency’s creation. Recently the agency has come under scrutiny for its contributions of millions of dollars in grants to researchers in order to hide the potential trade off of its actions in order to further the agency’s agenda. The EPA’s ever-expanding regulation could end up harming more than it actually
The Hudson River and PCB Pollution The Hudson River is a body of water that stretches for 315 miles from the Adirondack Mountains to the Battery in Manhattan, reaching its deepest point of 216 feet in the Highlands near Constitution Island and West Point and reaches its widest point of 3 miles across at Havestraw. This river is one of the most beautiful and scenic of the Tri-State area. Unfortunately, it happens to be New York’s most polluted river. The river has been influenced upon since the early 1600’s, when Englishman Henry Hudson commanded the Dutch ship Half Moon on an exploration of the river, certain that he had discovered a trade route to China. It soon dawned that this was no Atlantic-to-Pacific passage but an Edenlike place of awesome potential-a river valley teeming with prospect and spirit that was worth fighting for. In the centuries that followed, the fight for the river and its commerce never stopped, and still continues to the present. Then during the Industrial Revolution, with the advent of hulking manufacturing plants on the riverbanks, everything changed. The river became a sewer, cut off from the people around it by the electrification of the railroads. The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal instantly opened trade to the Midwest by linking Troy to Buffalo and established the Hudson River as the major commerce channel for New York City. Tycoons transformed the landscape in New York and across the country with the railroad, and the Hudson River valley became a hotbed for iron mining, limestone quarrying and clear-cutting. Toward the 19th century, when dynamite blasting was reducing the face of the Palisades to rubble, conservationists became alarmed that something was being lost to progress. In 1900, New York and New Jersey established the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to preserve the cliffs from further quarrying. Although conservation efforts continued into the 20th century, there was no progress to protect the Hudson River and its banks from industrial pollution. Some of the largest factories in the nation started production on the Hudson River, including Anaconda Wire and Cable in Hastings-on-Hudson and GM in the present day Sleepy Hallow, discharging waste into the river. There are numerous known contaminated sites around the U.S. Among the most dangerous of these, and of particular concern to residents of the Hudson Valley,...
This is not the first time that BP is at fault. They have had criminal convictions in places such as Endicott Bay in Alaska, Texas City and Prudhoe Bay. Jeanne Pascal was a part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was assigned to watch over BP. Pascal was watching over companies such as BP that were facing debarment. Under her watch, BP was charged with four federal crimes. Over the past twelve years, Pascal’s seen BP patterns as misconducts. She attempted to warn the government about BP’s safety and environmental issues that would most likely lead to another disaster. While she was watching over BP, the company misinformed and misled her about things that resulted to the felonies that they have committed. Sensing that some things were not right about the company, she presented a case of their unsafe working environments.
We discovered that the history of the oil industry along the Delaware River dates back to 1892. Since then, water port facilities, public transportation, and other forms of infrastructure have benefitted from this industry and undergone important development. More recently, however, due to the rising cost of importing and refining crude oil, a couple of refineries along the Delaware River are on the verge of shutting down. According to the report, the cessation of operations at these facilities has resulted in a direct loss of 1,800 jobs and an indirect loss of 15,000 jobs. In this situation, however, Delta Airlines spent 180 million dollars purchasing Trainer Refinery, for the purpose of lowering the cost of jet fuel. This purchase...
There are many ethical issues in the movie Erin Brockovich. This movie is about a mother of three who uncovers a water poisoning case by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) in southern California. Once it was proved that the company had knowingly dumped hexavalent chromium into the ground water, the utility company was found liable for a $330 million dollar verdict.
Today, most people are not aware of the dangers that PVC poses to humans and the environment (APHA, 2011, p. 1). The overall lifecycle of PVC products is dangerous, because workers are exposed to PVC on a daily basis and vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen (Gold & Helfand, 2002). Not only are the workers at a great risk, but the communities surrounding the factories that manufacture and dispose of PVC materials face a risk (Gold & Helfand, 2002). In the film Blue Vinyl, families were forced out of their homes when groundwater became contaminated from the manufacturing of PVC (Gold & Helfand, 2002). Also, the film gave eye witness accounts to the trees being brown in their neighborhoods due to being close to the factories that produced PVC, while trees on the other side of the river were considerable greener in color. The production of PVC creates
At the four year mark of the Deep Water Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows British Petroleum (BP) to drill for oil in the gulf once again. Many consumer advocate groups, chiefly Public Citizens, have voiced concerns over this decision. The lack of corporate accountability and oversight makes this decision seem unethical to these advocates groups. However, the company agrees to follow the agency’s ethic and safety procedure given the new leases. Yet, a series of accidents on its infrastructure makes reform seem doubtful for the company.
The problem with pollution prevention is that it requires people to understand more than the intimate details of the production process; they must also understand the technical possibilities. Many corporations have environmental managers, which are generally responsible for helping corporations comply with the law. According to the case study, the work of environmental managers often expose them to many pollution prevention solutions, but they often have trouble getting access to production areas. Production often sees Environmental Managers as "the compliance police".
The article “5 Years after Coal-Ash Spill, Little Has Changed” by Duane W. Gang, informs that there has been little change since the spill. In the beginning of the article, a Tennessee resident Tommy Charles talk about how his life had changed after the coal spill. This was the day when the dike failed at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant, spilling 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash into the Emory and Clinch rivers. The spill was covering about 300 acres of land. After five years, coal ash still remains mostly unregulated. EPA and Congress still have not figured out how to see the material and the corporation still continue to argue about classifying coal ash as hazardous. Stephen Smith, who is chief executive of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy mentions that the final solution is not available yet. Later in the article it is discussed on how much TVA is spending to clean up...
In the community of Chester, Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh investment company, Russell, Rea & Zappala (RR&Z), was built four hazardous waste treatment facilities since the 1960’s. Chester has approximately 45,000 residents in which most are African American and of low income (“Toxic Waste in Chester”, Pennsylvania). Residents of Chester blamed the four toxic waste treatment facilities for their reoccurring health problems. Unfortunately, the state government stands behind that there isn’t proof that the waste facilities are making them ill. Resulting from the state government’s ignorance, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) still allows the construction of more toxic waste facilities in Chester. But Chester didn’t give up so
Regulating the toxic waste emissions of polluting organizations has been a costly and time-consuming element of environmental policy for as long as there have been restrictions on these emissions. However, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), signed into law in late 1986, set forth a number of standards that required polluters to disclose information about their emissions levels to the public and started a chain of events that has led to the creation of numerous information disclosure policies. One of the main thoughts behind these laws, aside from the benefit of increased public awareness of pollution in the community and the ability to plan for emergencies involving the wastes from polluters, was that with firms’ toxics use information available to the public, polluting firms would be motivated to regulate their own emissions in an effort to maintain positive public images. Many other laws were later passed with the same ideas in mind, so that there now are a number of different laws requiring information disclosure and encouraging self-regulation by polluting firms and facilities.
BP spent millions of dollars per day to clean up the oil spill. It was estimated that BP was spending “$6 million a day on fixing the mess (Grant, J.K. 2011). In 2005, an explosion at BP’s Texas City oil refinery killed 15 people and injured more than180 people. The accident cost the firm US $2 billion in damages and lawsuits (Murry, B. 2010). According to the OSHA (United States Occupational safety and Health Administration) Citations 760 and 761 BP was responsible for wilful and flagrant violations of safety standards. It happened intentionally and showing indifference to its employees and are yet to pay the fines from Texas City explosion. CSR review BP Green washing Tulane Law review Dodd-Frank act whose role is to evaluate the company fraudulent claims of CSR (Cherry, M. A., & Sneirson, J. F. 2010). An approximated $134 million BP plans spend to address the damage it caused for the Deepwater Horizon Resource Damage Assessment Trustees that include to restore habitats for ospreys and other birds, protect sea turtles and rebuild fish populations ( Thompson, A. 2010). Explosion of BP refinery in Texas that caused 100 injuries and 15 deaths in 2005.Criminal charges due to spread of 270,000 gallons of crude oil in Alaskan tundra in 2006.Toxic spill of 2,000 gallons of methanol in the oil
Over the last few years, the world has seen a growing movement that aims to save the Earth from one problem that threatens to kill all life on it: pollution. Pollution is a problem that continues to plague humanity today in the forms of plastics, greenhouse gases, and many more, which threatens today’s living beings. Even though the problem has been linked as the cause of drastic climate changes and several mass extinctions, several groups, most notably oil companies, still do not acknowledge it or attempt to prevent further pollution and avoid more destruction.
The United States government has generally had a hands off approach regarding business environmental corporate ethics. Up until the year 1970, the government rarely accounted for the amount of pollution and the effect it had on the American population. This year, 1970, the movement enacted the largest Environmental Protection Agency otherwise known as EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency has several branches across the United States to help enforce and institute laws and regulations, regarding the government (EPA). The reason “EPA” was established was to police these code infract...