A Crisis Management Fiasco

The September 2007 edition of the Maritime Executive Magazine featured SEACOR Environmental Services (SES). In the edition Tony Munoz wrote "Big Oil, the Environmentalists, and a Crisis Management Paradox." Today, as BP deals with its own public relations fiasco over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the MarEx dug into its archives to share the PR nightmare faced by Exxon 21 years ago.

Here is an excerpt and final paragraphs of the article:

A Crisis Management Paradox
Many corporations have faced crisis management situations under the bright spotlight of the media, but few have come to exemplify failure as Exxon did in dealing with the Exxon Valdez spill. While images of thousands of dead animals, birds and fish, and of toxic oil pollution flowing throughout Prince William Sound were being beamed around the world, the company refused to communicate with the media for more than a week.

During the first days, the public outcry was pure outrage because the emergency response was nonexistent as the oil spread into a 12-square-mile slick. Then bad weather struck, making containment impossible and still there was no official word from Exxon. To most Americans, Exxon appeared indifferent to the environmental disaster, and its perceived arrogance incensed them. When Frank Iarossi, the President of Exxon Shipping, did speak to the media in Valdez, he said, “The cleanup is not proceeding well. Believe me, that is an understatement. We have a mess on our hands.”

In 1986, Lawrence G. Rawl became Chairman of Exxon after 37 years with the company. Suspicious of the media, he strongly disliked journalists and acted accordingly. However, during the first week of the spill, he was simply following corporate counsel’s advice to avoid the media for fear that going on record could prove to be a legal liability. Finally he did go on television, watched by millions of angry Americans across the nation, and was asked about the latest plans for the cleanup. Apparently he had not read them and coolly replied, “It is not the role of a chairman of a large worldwide corporation to read every technical plan.” His arrogance was blatant, and Exxon’s catastrophe was complete.

The Exxon Valdez is considered America’s greatest environmental disaster, but on a list of the world’s largest spills, the Alaskan spill only ranks thirtieth. In fact, in 1978 the Amoco Cadiz spilled 70 million gallons off the coast of France (an amount more than six times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill), and there have been 21 even larger tanker spills. When asked about the preparedness and response to the Exxon Valdez incident, Secretary of Transportation Samuel K. Skinner said on a scale of one to 10, the response was a “zero.”