Subscribe to my Feed
« What if the oil companies worked together to fix the spill? | Home | Why hasn’t Hearst Corp. helped Helen Thomas apologize? »
When business disasters happen, how much can the government do?
By Lauren | June 7, 2010
With the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in its 49th day (how horrible is that?) fingers are pointing in every direction. While British Petroleum remains the primary target of public outrage, the Obama Administration is taking tremendous heat for failing to prevent this unprecedented catatrophe. That’s understandable - but is it fair?
Businesses that operate in the U.S. go to great lengths to avoid micromanagement by regulators. There has long been a perception in this country that “Big Government” creates nothing but delays and unnecessary red tape. Companies argue that they should be allowed to look after themselves, and that government should butt out unless and until businesses prove themselves incapable of effective self-policing.
That’s fine - until it isn’t. Now we’re seeing what happens if companies fail to self-regulate and, in particular, fail to prepare for serious problems. By the time the government steps in, all it can do is assign blame, assess fines, and do general clean-up. President Obama has had to admit that the federal government has neither the expertise nor the equipment to close off a blown-out oil well two miles beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Fair enough - that’s not what the government does. But it is what BP should be able to do, and BP shouldn’t have been allowed to drill in the Gulf unless it could.
I wish the Obama Administration had gotten around to cleaning up the reputedly ineffective and corrupt Mineral Management Service before this happened. But this situation demonstrates why it’s so important for companies to voluntarily take steps to ensure the safety of their own operations. By the time the government gets involved, it’s often too late to prevent a tragedy.
Topics: Business Ethics, Risk Management, Social Ethics, corporate responsibility, ethics |
June 9th, 2010 at 5:13 am
[...] Night Light, AIG, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Lauren Bloom, Lauren Bloom’s Blog, Rational Rants Lauren Bloom writing on her blog whether or not governments can be effective when they intervene in corporate disasters. Many had [...]