Business Regulation Simulation Many firms have growth opportunities to invest in profitable projects. (Ross, Westerfield, & Jaffe, 2005). The new millennium brought in fierce competition, aggressive marketing and strategic alliances; the extent to which a business succeeds or fails often depends upon that business's ability to be in n sync with states, federal, governmental and environmental regulations. This paper will identify the key facts, regulations and legal issues in Alumina’ company; the conflicts among the competing stakeholders will be discuss, the handling of the regulatory issue by the internal counsel will be analyze and alternative solutions will be discussed by using the risk analysis matrix as metric system. These solutions must be align with Alumina’s values in order to be efficient and affective. Alumina Inc. is a $4 billion aluminum maker, based in the United States and operates in eight countries around the world. The United States market constitutes of 70% of its sales. The company manufactures, packaging materials, automotive components, aluminum refining, bauxite mining and aluminum smelting. Five years ago, Alumina was in violation of environmental discharge norms in a routine EPA compliance evaluation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established to administer federal laws that concern pollution of the air and water, solid waste and toxic substance disposal, pesticide regulation, and radiation. (Reed, Morehead, Shedd, & Corley, 2005). A clean up was ordered by EPA, which Alumina promptly complied and the violation was considered corrected after a follow up audit. The company now falls under the jurisdiction of region 6 of the EPA. The company now faced new allegation. Kelly Bates, a 38-year-old single mother, accused Alumina of repeatedly contaminating the waters of Lake Dira with carcinogenic effluents, and has alleged that the company caused her child of ten years to contract leukemia, a cancer illness directly related to the company's toxins (Simulation, 2008). Bates believes that there is a direct correlation between her daughter's condition and Alumina's first environmental violation. Most Companies’ main objective is to identify cost-cutting measures that will improve profitability, boost growth therefore maximizing stakeholders’ profits. In the same token they cannot ignore their enronmental and social responsibility. Alumina has a responsibility to its communities and the government where it operates; the company must follow legal, social and environmental regulations in order to be a successful company. Alumina Inc.'s legal issues can be a potential damaging lawsuit brought up by a local resident a mother who filed a five-million dollar personal injury lawsuit against Alumina, Inc.
In the movie Erin Brockovich not only were children affected by the water contamination but the adults were also negatively affected. In this film the families were directly exposed to carcinogens that were used for water pressure in a multi-million dollar company located a few miles away from the home. One particular family that caught my attention was the first family that filed a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company. Donna Jensen and her family filed a lawsuit again this company because of a real estate issue. Fortunately, Erin Brockovich worked as the lawyer's assistant and was the first individual to realize that this company was hiding the truth about the chemicals used in the facility. This information that PS&E was withholding from the local residents directly affected their health and
The movie “A Civil Action” released on January 8, 1999 provides viewers with an extraordinary story of the nightmare that occurred in Woburn Massachusetts in the late 1970’s. The people of this small town at the time had no idea what was going on until there were various cases of Leukemia in small children that ultimately resulted in the early passing of them. The people eventually had gone to find out that the drinking water in this small town was contaminated and there were many women that stepped in to get answers. This movie is a tremendously jaw dropping, eye opening account of a heartbreaking true story incident. There are various elements of negligence in this movie including, duty, legal cause, proximate cause and damages.
Exxon/Mobil, one of the nation’s leading oil producers, has its main refinery located in Beaumont, Texas. Each year, the residents of Beaumont/Port Arthur have to contend with the 39,000 pounds of pollution spewed each year by the Exxon refinery. Exxon’s emissions are 385% above the state refinery average. In 1999, the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Committee (TNRCC) allowed the plant to increase their emissions, without allowing the public to have a say in the matter. Interestingly, 95% of the people living near the plant are of African American descent and are in the poverty range. Some believe that this, along with the lack of education in the area, allows Exxon to get away with such high emissions. Residents in nearby neighborhoods have been complaining of headaches, nausea, eye, and throat irritation for years. Since 1997, Mobil has repeatedly violated health standards in its emissions of two key air pollutants: sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, These “rotten egg” smells are so strong, one can smell it through a car driving past the refinery. After numerous complaints and one record of a refinery worker becoming unconscious because of the fumes, the EPA awarded Exxon with a $100,000 environmental justice grant in October of 1998. Hopefully, Exxon has put the money to good use and cleaned up their emissions.
How CAPSIM Works: The business simulation is relatively unaffected by external factors such as politics. The only time CAPSIM required additional decision-making was in regards to the ethical dilemma of offshore cost-cutting. Not once did CAPSIM require the teams to make additional decisions in regards to changing labour, tax, regulatory and other legislations.
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA is the result of a 1970 executive order by President Richard Nixon for the purpose of protecting the environment of the United States through regulation on business and citizens. Public opinion on the Environmental Protection Agency has been divided fairly evenly across the population of the United States as of recently, as compared to the widespread public concern of the 50’s and 60’s that led to the agency’s creation. Recently the agency has come under scrutiny for its contributions of millions of dollars in grants to researchers in order to hide the potential trade off of its actions in order to further the agency’s agenda. The EPA’s ever-expanding regulation could end up harming more than it actually
As the paper suggests, Du Pont has been a dominant company in the TiO2 market as it is the only company which possesses the operation technology of ilmenite chloride which eventually led to lowering its cost below its competitors. Given the fact that chloride technology is cheaper than other technologies and Du Pont is the only company that manages the facility, these two factors give Du Pont major advantages over other companies. But it won’t be long before it loses the privilege of these advantages unless Du Pont thinks of new strategy to maintain them. In this case two strategies have been introduced and considered by Du Pont, growth strategy which calls for an aggressive expansion to control the market and limit competitors’ ability to expand. The other one is called maintain strategy which aims for 45% of market share by gradually increasing investment. Each of these strategies carries different kinds of risks which Du Pont should take into consideration.
On September 12, 2013, environmental groups filed a law suit against Duke Energy for their inability to properly clean up toxic ash, which has caused the pollution of Sutton Lake and severe groundwater pollution in the surrounding area (WWAY). In particularly, the environmental group claims that, “coal ash pollution threatens to destroy the fishery of Sutton Lake and is moving to the groundwater wells that supply the drinking water for the nearby by community.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates air pollution through various policies passed through the Supreme Court. The scope of this paper is to investigate the Clean Air Act of 1970, and to analyze the impact it has on businesses and society. It provides a rationale for the policy, and contains a brief overview of governmental involvement in regulating air pollution. Further investigation identifies key stakeholders in business, government, and society, and assesses the pros and cons of regulating air pollution. Finally, the paper concludes with limitations of this analysis and recommendations for future action.
This is not the first time that BP is at fault. They have had criminal convictions in places such as Endicott Bay in Alaska, Texas City and Prudhoe Bay. Jeanne Pascal was a part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was assigned to watch over BP. Pascal was watching over companies such as BP that were facing debarment. Under her watch, BP was charged with four federal crimes. Over the past twelve years, Pascal’s seen BP patterns as misconducts. She attempted to warn the government about BP’s safety and environmental issues that would most likely lead to another disaster. While she was watching over BP, the company misinformed and misled her about things that resulted to the felonies that they have committed. Sensing that some things were not right about the company, she presented a case of their unsafe working environments.
The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.
Whether the State of Setonia have standing under the doctrine of standing and the parens patriae to file a case and sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for the release of toxins in the state. The state of Setonia alleges that massive toxins emitted by the Environmental Protection Agency have resulted in global warming, which, in turn, has severely eroded the land where the state of Setonia is and threatens its fourth major industry, tourism, with imminent destruction. The question before us is whether the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) action that the Act authorizes, displaces Setonia’s claims. I hold that to be fallacious.
They try to prove that the emission of chemicals from the Shell company are actually hazardous and are released at unsafe concentrations. With respect to the Ecological Model of health, the focus here is the relationship between the citizens and their environment, so any change in the environment can affect the health of citizens (Drummer. 2008). Another focus is the location relative to the Shell company that is an issue. The residents of this town are faced with health problems due to the location of the Shell company, which enforces that Health Geography is a big influence here (Drummer. 2003). Citizens within the Diamond community report increasing rates of asthma in children, along with machines in their house to help prevent/cope with allergies. The location plays a major role as to why these negative health effects are occurring since the chemical plant is emitting these chemicals nearby. When the air was tested, multiple chemicals were found but one that stood out was Benzene which is known to have cancer causing effects (WHO. 2018). Even with this knowledge, the Shell company continued to claim that the living conditions within this city were adequate (Grunberg.
The Chesapeake Bay is polluted with agricultural waste. We see things like 1.5 billion pounds of chicken waste that no one wants to take responsibility for. Ignoring standards, a waterway was tested for E. coli; the standard is 125 FCU/100ml of water. Yet this waterway’s level was at 48392 FCU/100ml. An industry that will go to great lengths to make sure that Congress doesn’t impose sanction against them.
The Criminal Process in Environmental Regulation. (n.d.). UH Law. Retrieved April 6, 2014, from http://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/thester/courses/Environmental-Practicum-2014/syllabus/chap6.pdf
Within the Gilbane Gold case, the major problem is the contribution of water pollution by dumping chemicals to speed production for Z CORP. However, there is doubt as to what extent the company violated city regulations. Tom Richards believes that Z-CORP broke regulations repeatedly but Professor Massin believes that it is not solid evidence. Part of the problem is that two different tests are involved: an older and a less sensitive test which does not break regulations but there is also the newer and more sensitive one which does. The newer test was said that the company just broke city regulations, but not by a large amount.