This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

[Video: Groucho and Chico discuss how you can make more money by not doing something.]

In my weekend column, I said that corporations will poison you if it makes them more money than they could make by not poisoning you. And I said that the best way to make sure that poisoning doesn't pay is the perceived likelihood of the government coming in and shutting you down, or at least issuing fines big enough to make adding all that filth to environment come out a loser on the deal.

— Putting profits before people — George Pyle | The Salt Lake Tribune

" ... Some people — and every single corporation since the word was invented — care only about making money. If they can make more money by poisoning people than they can by not poisoning people, they will poison people. It's what you do. ..."

Well, now we see that there it isn't only the government's thumb on the scale that will cause a corporation to abandon a potentially toxic endeavor.

Maybe it just won't make enough money:

— Shell abandons search for oil in the Arctic — AP / sltrib.com

"Anchorage • Royal Dutch Shell is giving up on its expensive and controversial push to produce oil in Alaska's Arctic waters, a decision that darkens the long-term oil prospects of the U.S. and brings relief to environmental groups that had tried desperately to block the project.

"Shell is abandoning the region 'for the foreseeable future' because it failed to find enough oil to make further drilling worthwhile. ..."

Or maybe Shell is changing its mind due to government action. Or predicted government action:

— Why Shell quit drilling in the Arctic — Paul Barrett | Bloomberg News / sltrib.com

" ... Possibly more significant than the immediate environmental activism is Shell's concern about who will oversee Arctic regulation come January 2017. In August, Hillary Clinton made her first major break with President Obama over the environment, announcing that she opposed Arctic drilling. 'Given what we know, it's not worth the risk,' Clinton said on Twitter. Despite the candidate's current struggle to shake off primary foe Sen. Bernie Sanders, Shell may fear that a Clinton presidency would doom its chancy northern exploration. ..."

My column also made reference to this case:

— Ex-peanut exec given 28 years for deadly outbreak — AP /sltrib.com

"Albany, Ga. • A former peanut company executive was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison for his role in a deadly salmonella outbreak, the stiffest punishment ever handed out to a producer in a food-borne illness case. ..."

And another such prosecution, where a corporate executive may be held personally responsible for the sins of a soulless corporation, is happening in West Virginia:

— Federal judge denies Blankenship defense request to delay trial — AP / Williamson (W.V.) Daily News

"Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship's trial will go on as scheduled Oct. 1, after a federal judge denied an emergency defense motion to postpone the trial until January. ...

" ... The defense argues the pretrial publicity has left an 'erroneous impression' that Blankenship is on trial for causing the April 5, 2010, Upper Big Branch mine explosion that took the lives of 29 miners.

"Although he is not charged with causing the explosion, he is charged with conspiracy to violate safety standards and lying to securities regulators and investor after the explosion. ..."