In the midst of a public relations emergency (nightmare), snap decisions are made quickly. Frankly, it’s tough to be critical about the decisions made under such pressure. It’s tough to imagine what someone goes through until you “walk in their shoes.” We’re mindful of that and this is not an attempt at “piling on.” But we can’t ignore the story of how Chevron has addressed the current Greene County, PA well fire crisis. A worker from a contracting company–Cameron International–lost his life in the explosion and fire that raged for nearly five days before it burned out. As we’ve noted several times, to their credit, Chevron was open and transparent, posting frequent updates on their website (see Chevron’s Updates here).
During the crisis emergency equipment, personnel and around-the-clock activity in the area greatly disrupted the lives of those living nearby. Someone at Chevron decided it would be a good idea to show the company’s appreciation to those neighbors whose lives were turned upside down. So Chevron reps went door to door at about 30 nearby homes and handed out…a coupon for a free pizza and 2 liter soda–value $12. Thunk. While we appreciate they wanted to do something, this was decidedly not the best decision that could of been made by Chevron during this entire crisis, as noted by the Washington Observer-Reporter:
