BUSINESS ETHICS

Case study
Group members:
Tabassum Manzoor (02-111211-152)
Sitara Hameed (02-111211-150)
Muneeb Farooq (02-111211-136)
Imam Jan (02-111211-251)
Nimra raziq (02-111211-030)
 Gas or grouse
Question #01
What are the systemic, corporate and individual issues raised in this case?

Answer:
Systemic Issues
The government has to look up in the macro view. Not just from the economic reasons, the
government has to look from the ecological point of view. Seeing the fact that Questar drilling
has benefited the local economies as well as increasing welfare, there are also concerns about the
endangered sage grouse and other wildlife population in the surrounding area. In addition, with
the rising need of clean energy, the natural gas drilling has also become very important.

Corporate Issues
The issues rising within Questar is how the company should be able to meet the demand of the
natural gas without having to be sued over some environmental matters. Moreover, as the drilling
operations are forced to stop, next to the rising costs, there would be more lay-offs, of which
would damage the employees trust and thus creating more problems.

Individual Issues

 Jim Smith, a former communications director for President George W. Bush Energy Task
Force, tried to lobby the Bush administration to keep the grouse off the endangered
species list, encouraged "grass-roots opposition" to "provide political cover", and
suggested "funding scientific studies" to show the bird was not endangered.

 Dru Bower, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming said that
“[endangered species] listings are not good for the oil and gas industry, so anything we
can do to prevent a species from being listed is good for the industry.”
  George W. Bush, the president of USA, said that new sources of domestic energy are key
to the country's economic future, he came to power seeking to unsnarl bureaucratic red
tape, speed government's issuance of permits and open up as much public land as
possible. Once in office, he attacked Clinton-era proposals to create national monuments
and tried to open 58 million acres Clinton had closed to road building, logging and
drilling.

Question # 2
How should wildlife species like grouse or deer be valued, and how should that be balanced
against the economic interests of a company like Questar? What principles or rules would you
propose we use to balance the value of wildlife species against economic interests?

Answer:

It is extremely difficult to put on wildlife species into monetary valuation. Some of available
research even mentioned that one of the ways of valuating the wildlife species is to count on the
effort made on the conservation. The higher the conservation cost is, the higher is the monetary
value. But however, the wildlife valuation isn’t all about monetary aspects. There are an
environmental balance needs to be concerned as well. Basically, valuing them isn’t an easy job.

However, when it deals with company’s economic interest such as Questar, there should be an
effort by the company itself to both reserving the environment as well as providing some
conservation funds to help the work of conservation.

Question # 3

In light of the fact that natural gas reduces the U. S’s undesirable dependence on foreign oil and
the fact that natural gas produces less greenhouse gases than coal, oil, and other fuels, should
Questar continue its drilling operations? Does the environmental impact of Questar’s drilling
operations imply that Questar is morally obligated to stop drilling wells on the Pinedale mesa?
Explain.
Answer:

Basically, Questar is morally obliged, but it is definitely not the only one having the obligation.
The Questar company should continue their innovation for drilling, so the environment and
animal around Questar can be survive and have a chance to breath. Bureau of Land Management
has already imposed several restrictions on Questar’s operations on the mesa to protect the
wildlife species living on the mesa especially sage grouse.

The restrictions are as follows:

 Roads, wells and other structure had to be located a quarter mile or more from grouse breeding
ground and at least 2 miles from nesting area during breeding system.

 No drilling activity during winter So, ethically Questar Operation should obey the BLM
conditions for their drilling activities. Because on the other hand, to fulfill the energy demand of
the US, Questar Corporation could not just break off the drilling activities.

Question # 4

What, if anything, should Questar be doing differently?

Answer:

From begining they should consider the solution of the impact for environment and animals
arround Questar.

Question # 5:

In your views, have the environmental interest group behave ethically?

Answer:

Although the environmental interest group is fighting over for the sake of the environment, they
do not fully ethically behave. By asking the company to stop drilling in the winter, it would
cause the cost leap for the company as well as the lay-offs of workers that need to be considered.
They cannot simply weigh for one side without thinking over the result of action in the other
side.
Question # 6

Should the lose of species produce by the drilling operations of quester be considered a problem
of pollution or a problem of conservation? Can the lose of species by evaluated as an external
cost? Explain.

Answer:

In my opinion, the loss of species produced by drilling operations by Questar is considered both
as a problem of pollution and a problem of conservation. Because the drilling operations is the
main source of pollution in terms of land pollution which is occupying and damaging wildlife
habitat. But at the same time, the other problem is about the usage of the land which naturally is
the habitat for wildlife species such as sage grouse, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and so on.
The loss of species can be regarded as external cost in this case. So, it must be internalized to
company cost