The BP oil spill was the major environmental, political, and economic disaster of the year. The spill occurred on April 20, 2010 when “methane gas from the well, under high pressure, shot all the way up and out of the drill column, expanded onto the platform, and then ignited and exploded”. The oil spill resulted in 11 worker deaths, environmental problems that are still being measured as more oil washes up on shore and most importantly, economic disaster for Gulf of Mexico businesses that depend on the ocean to maintain their tourism/production level.
The ethics concern involving BP was that they never took responsibility for the damages that ensued. They played the blame game. BP’s C.E.O., Tony Hayward, has said that; “This was not our accident.” He has pointed to Transocean, the rig owner, and Halliburton, the company that constructed the concrete encasement that sealed the well, as the true companies responsible for the damage (BP CEO Says Oil Spill Isn’t Their Fault video). While it would see like good legal sense to try and shift the blame off themselves, BP should have been focusing on public relations in order to maintain its reputation with consumers.