Legal Responsibilities of Exxon for Oil Spill
INTRODUCTION
On 24 March 1989, the oil su
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On 24 March 1989, the oil supertanker Exxon Valdez hit rocks in Prince William Sound in Alaska, and eventually spilled more than 10 million gallons of crude oil into the waters of the Sound (Shapiro, and Huntley, 1989). Over the subsequent hours, the hours turned into days, as the containment efforts were unbelievably botched, further exacerberating the environ mental disaster (Wells, and McCoy, 1989). Still, the troubles did not end, as the clean up efforts turned out to be as con fused and disorganized as were the containment efforts again, continuing to make a bad problem even worse (Wells, and Sulli van, 1989). Lastly, Exxon announced that it planned to curtail its clean up efforts before the great majority of Alaskans andAlaskan government officials, environmentalists, and many federal government officials thought the effort should be ter minated (Satchell, and Carpenter, 1989).Throughout all of this activity, the Exxon Corporation was exposed to legal liability on a number of fronts, and had suits filed against it by a variety of claimants, for many of whom the company recognizes no legal liability (Feder, 1989). The purpose of this research is to explore the question of whether or not Exxon has fulfilled its legal responsibilities with respect to the Prince William Sound oil spill. The following section traces the events relevant to Exxon's legal responsibilities with respect to the Prince Wil liam Sound oil spill. This discussion i
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part of government is (1) a failure to recognize the need for an effective response to a critical situation, such as the acid rain problem, and (2) a failure to implement programs designed to overcome public opposition to needed actions.
A rational response to the environmental protection prob lems, and to problems involving environmental health, based on scientific knowledge is feasible. A nonpolitical response, however, is not feasible in a non dictatorial society, because public support is required for the success of governmental initiatives. Thus, an effective governmental response to environmental protection and health issues requires incorpora tion of both scientific and political considerations into any solution. Economic factors then become a part of the political consideration.
Although environmental contamination is an emotional issue which rouses high passions on all sides of the issue, there are serious economic and political implications of such 8contamination which should be soberly considered by all fac tions. In the economic context, the following implications must be considered in the development of solutions, because a continuation of current practices could result in the follow ing:
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Approximate Word count = 3838
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)
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