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Paper short abstract:

This Article examines the social, political, and legislative history of the United States Oil Pollution Act of 1924. The nation's first federal antipollution law is undeservedly obscure and is reassessed through new archival research and historical perspectives.

Paper long abstract:

This Article examines the social, political, and legislative history of the United States Oil Pollution Act of 1924. A century after its enactment, the nation’s first federal antipollution law remains undeservedly obscure. At the height of the conservative Lochner era, during the conservative Coolidge Administration, with conservative majorities in both houses of Congress, and in the face of opposition from the oil and marine shipping industries, the United States Congress enacted a national law prohibiting oil pollution. How did this happen? Who was involved? And what can be learned about today’s conservative legal and political environment?

This work is part of a larger project to synthesize histories of political conservatism and national environmental legislation in the U.S. prior to the 1970s. The author's prior work has traced this development back to through the postwar years. This work extends the inquiry further, examining U.S. federal antipollution legislation within the context of the social and political environment of the post-progressive 1920s, with attention to the role of private associations and business interests in promoting the legislation, and of technological feasibility in ultimately securing passage while also limiting the law's scope.

There has not been a major study of this law since the 1980s, providing an excellent opportunity to integrate new historical perspectives - including environmental history and the recognition of political conservatism as an important historical force - as well as newly available archival records.

I would be happy to participate either in a roundtable or as a solo presentation.