The Spill Caused By The British Petroleum Oil Spill

On April 20th, 2010 forty miles of the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, the largest oil spill in the United States occurred. The explosion on the British Petroleum oil rig killed eleven people and injured seventeen others resulting in eleven counts of manslaughter, two misdemeanors, and a felony against the corporate giant. The spill caused 200 million gallons of crude oil to be pumped into the waters, which lasted a total of eighty-seven days. Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi, were affected in the 16,000 total miles of coastline that were damaged by the leak. At least 8,000 animals were killed within the six months following the devastation, which produced about $40 billion in fines, lawsuit settlements,†¦show more content†¦District Judge Carl Barbier blamed the company’s â€Å"gross negligence† for the explosion of the oil rig (Businessweek.com, 2015). After the damage was done the chief executive officer Tony Hayward became a hou sehold name. His initial response to the spill was â€Å"I just want my life back.† This statement was taken with great criticism. People were outraged that the response was so selfish and that the chief only seemed to care about himself instead of the families that were involved and the ethical implementations of such a disastrous event. The chief eventually came out with a well-crafted seemingly autonomous response to the public with a very formal â€Å"I’m sorry† (Cnn.com, 2010). The backlash came hard and swift. The view from the general public seemed that BP did not do enough in the initial response of the oil spill. It seemed like the company had a systemic systematic approach to business that resulted in myriad environmental and worker safety violations (Citizen.org, n.d). British Petroleum was a repeat corporate criminal and the consensus seemed to believe this company would take shortcuts and risk human safety for business profit. It seemed as though this company did not have categorical imperative to act with responsibility to the environment or its worker’s safety. Some blame the company’s lack of business ethics came from an ethical relativism that resides from the company’s home country of Britain. In today’s global