Ethical Issues In The Richardson Drilling Case

In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, polluting the Gulf of Mexico with 4.9 million barrels of oil (EPA, 2015). This disaster is known as the BP oil spill, and is regarded as one of the worst environmental catastrophes in American history. Although it is widely recognized for its impact on ocean ecosystems, marine animals, and public health, it is also a human rights issue. The extensive impacts of the spill include the violations of the human rights to a healthy environment, livelihood, and housing. Further, the oil spill disproportionately affected low-income communities of color that are systematically excluded from protection against environmental harm. This adds to its relevance to human rights because all rights are intended to be enjoyed equally regardless of race, color, income, or other status. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill demonstrates how the legal system often fails to defend vulnerable people and the inequalities associated with the damage and compensation of the disaster.

Ethics and moral obligations are issues we all encounter at one time or another. In the professional setting, all people should act in a manner that would uphold the good of society. To be ethical, one has to determine their obligations, moral ideas, and moral philosophy (Boatright, p. 19, 2009). The case analysis involving Jacob Franklin was a perfect example of how an individual can face the dilemma of doing what is right or wrong. Businesses have their own code of ethics, and the employees within the business have to determine whether or not they will follow the company’s code of conduct. I will discuss several ethical issues in the case analysis including; failure to report information, remaining silent regarding faulty equipment,

Although many things about engineering are positive there is a dark side. We depend on them and while engineers are making innovations for us, and maintaining life as the way we know it they also struggle with ethical issues such as plagiarism, confidentiality, and whistleblowing. Just like the list of golden rules we learned as young children, engineers uphold a list of ethical rules to guide them to make the ethically correct decision when one of these situations arise. Bribery the act of receiving or giving a gift with something required in return is another example of an ethical issue that can entice engineers to break the code (“Gifts and Bribes”, 2006). Unfortunately this was the case for a former manager of the Army Corps of Engineers whose greed caused him to break the ethical canons to “avoid deceptive acts”, to “conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, and lawfully as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession”, and finally to “hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public” (“Code of Ethics”). His misconduct is an example of the unethical decisions some engineers make.

Conservation of Mass and Energy are the hallmarks of our natural world, and as we progress as a civilization there is an ever increasing need to satisfy our growing demand for energy. This leads to the present need for more innovative solutions that are able to solve the world 's energy needs within the confines of the natural laws we live with. The Earth 's petrochemical reserves represent a finite amount of available, extractable, energy that mankind is able to harvest. In order to continue meeting the need for our civilization to thrive, or at the least, maintain, itself; we have to continue, as chemical engineers, providing new and novel ways to support the world with ways to implement Mass and Energy transportation. The main issue at hand is that newer, sustainable, energy is needed.

Hydraulic fracturing is not the only cause for ethical concern. Mountaintop removal for the purposes of coal mining is an incredibly harmful procedure taking place on our planet. This destructive action being taken by companies looking to access coal underneath mountains is not only damaging to the earth and environment, but is also affecting humans who live near these sites (The Destructive Process of Mountaintop Removal). Companies is West Virginia and Kentucky can take virtually any mountain they choose and level it because laws are created in the favor of coal mining companies.

Ethics are very important in the business world and to the general public. Ethics is defined as a system of moral principles or the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group. Using a moral compass should be a requirement for every CEO and executive. Any person who will have some impact on society needs to understand the difference between right and wrong. Since businesses touch such a large segment of our society, codes of ethics must be established and followed to protect the general public. In the following pages we will discuss the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster and examine how it relates to (1) the state of business ethics since 2000, (2) examples of the classic

Oklahoma is the fifth largest source of oil and gas in the United States; which brings billions of dollars to the state economy each year [1]. However, there have been a lot of earthquakes ; which is considered not normal geologically. The reason to blame is the hydraulic fracking. With the increasing numbers of earthquake; due to hydraulic fracking, a lot of citizens decided to sue several oil and gas companies. One of these cases is brought by Sandra Ladra, a Prague resident, Oklahoma. One of the strongest earthquake was recorded; with a 5.7 magnitude, struck Prague on November 5th, 2011[2]. It was felt in at least 17 states and caused severe damages.  Huge pieces of rocks fell onto Sandra’s legs and lap; leaving her with a fierce pain in

It would be convenient to start this research paper by stating that corruption is a challenge mainly for businesses in developing countries and that it is unrelated to the current affliction of the economy in the United States. It would also be convenient to claim corruption has declined in America as a result of awareness raising campaigns and the numerous anti-corruption laws. But none of those aforementioned statements would be true. Corruption is not the exception, but rather the rule in today’s business practices. In 2004, Daniel Kaufmann, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former director at the World Bank, calculated an index of "legally corrupt" manifestations which is defined as the extent of undue influence

This deception on behalf of the executives and others in the organization who hid this vastly affected anyone who had stock in Enron as well as stock in other energy corporations. The

Hydraulic fracturing in combination with advancement in directional drilling has made it possible to economically extract oil and gas from unconventional resources. The growth in U.S. oil and gas exploration and production made possible by the increase in use of hydraulic fracturing, has raised concerns about its potential to impact human health and the environment. Concerns have been raised by the public about the effects of hydraulic fracturing on quality and quantity of drinking water resources. The hydraulic fracturing water cycle includes five main activities: the withdrawal of ground or surface water needed for hydraulic fracturing fluids; the mixing of water, chemicals, and proppant on the well pad to create the hydraulic fracturing fluid; the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into the well to fracture the formation, the return of injected fluid and water produced from the formation to the surface; and the reuse, treatment and disposal of wastewater generated at the well pad, including produced water (U.S. EPA, 2015). With the water cycle being so massive and prolonged, the presence of potential negative impacts is greatly increased.

An ethical dilemma arises when there is a conflict between the interest of the company and the rest of the stakeholders (Withey, 2012). Toyota is a profit making company that released millions of cars into the market without knowing that they could accelerate themselves suddenly. The Congress was mandated to investigate the matter, but 40 out of the 125 members of the relevant committee had received campaign funds from Toyota (BBC Worldwide Americas, Inc., 2015). Toyota had also spent $ 25 million

This case study was a powerful example to illustrate the presence of ethics within the

Every organization also has a profession responsibility to conduct business honestly and ethically. Our readings reported, “Experts estimated that U.S. companies lose about $600 billion a year from unethical and criminal behavior” Kinicki and Kreitner (2009). The organization could avoid having ethical issues by meeting the

Enron's entire scandal was based on a foundation of lies characterized by the most brazen and most unethical accounting and business practices that will forever have a place in the hall of scandals that have shamed American history. To the outside, Enron looked like a well run, innovative company. This was largely a result of self-created businesses or ventures that were made "off the balance sheet." These side businesses would sell stock, reporting profits, but not reporting losses. "Treating these businesses "off the balance sheet" meant that Enron pretended that these businesses were autonomous, separate firms. But, if the new business made money, Enron would report it as income. If the new business lost money or borrowed money, the losses and debt were not reported by Enron" (mgmtguru.com). As the Management Guru website explains, these tactics were alls designed to make Enron look like a more profitable company and to give it a higher stock price.

The functions of drilling mud, and how their properties are modified to suit downhole conditions