The requirement that engineers be related to the public interest is wrong. No more than the petroleum engineer is obligated to think of the ecology or energy politics. And when there are big oil spills, I doubt it's extra criticism about engineering obligations that will do the trick, as opposed to billion dollar penalties.

Engineers often don't own priorities. So as long as the people who set company priorities don't care, nobody will either. Moral yelling won't disrupt a business model, and if neither consumers nor legislators punish companies for spilling externalities around, then what do companies care?

If the activity continues to be profitable...