Exxon-Valdez is a large corporation with a large amount of responsibility to the environment, the public, and to whomever the company affects. In 1989, Exxon-Valdez proved itself to be a socially irresponsible company. Exxon-Valdez allowed a known alcoholic to operate a supertanker, by appealing the five billion dollar award to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lowering the amount, and for not compensating the initial oil-spill cleaners for acquiring diseases and sicknesses for handling carcinogenic materials.
             The captain of the supertanker, which grounded out on in charted territory, was Joseph Hazelwood. "Plaintiffs alleged that [Joseph] Hazelwood ran the ship aground while drunk." (Kravets, 03A) They also alleged that Mr. Hazelwood had a drinking problem prior to 1989 and Exxon-Valdez was aware of this. Exxon-Valdez had several complaints filed by crewmembers of Mr. Hazelwood that he was drinking on his shifts. Hazelwood was acquitted of operating the supertanker while intoxicated based on the lack of evidence but the point remains that Exxon-Valdez had the opportunity and information to take action on this issue and did not due to the poor management philosophy held by Exxon-Valdez. Exxon-Valdez should be held accountable for all punitive damages for exercising loose ethics that resulted in "eleven million gallons of oil" (Nardo, 71) being released over Alaska's Aleutian Range spanning approximately four hundred thousand acres on land and "smeared black goo across roughly fifteen hundred miles of [Alaska's eastern] coastline." (Kravets, 03A)
             Even now, the spill has not been remotely cleaned and Exxon-Valdez is still operating meaning that they still have assets. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "overturn[ed] the five billion dollar award" (Kravets, 03A) in 1991 and lowered the amount and made Exxon-Valdez pay three billion dollars in damages. To this day, Exxon-Valde...