Tag Archives: hydrocarbons

1971 Esso Engineering correspondence on Impact of Federal Air Pollution Regulations

This document is a 1971 Correspondence between Esso Engineering executives details the predicted impact of federal emission standards regulations.  A memo within this collection of documents summarizes the applicability and impact of each 1970 Clean Air Act provision on Esso Engineering’s operations and designs. The correspondence also includes a memo from the HRTC Task Force on […]

1965 API President “Meeting the Challenges of 1966”

This document, uncovered by Benjamin Franta in a letter to the Editor of Nature, contains the annual remarks of the American Petroleum Institute’s (“API”) President, Frank Ikard. Delivered in 1965, Ikard was preparing the oil industry for the challenges in the coming year. Significant for his acknowledgement of the 1965 Science Advisory Committee report (“Report”) that highlighted climate change and carbon emission hazards, Ikard worried of the industry’s challenges as they “grow in number, size, and complexity year by year.” In the face of The Water Quality Act, Clean Air Act amendment, and local regulations addressing pollution, Ikard said “[i]t takes no crystal ball to see that our involvement in government matters will intensify in the year ahead.”

1959 Shell “The Earth’s Carbon Cycle” Article

This article by Shell International Chemical Company’s Dr. M. A. Matthews, “The Earth’s Carbon Cycle,” was featured in the October 1959, Volume 6 Number 151 edition of the weekly publication The New Scientist. A rebuttal to Dr. Edward Teller’s 1957 address to the American Chemical Society, this piece shows the interest and attention the oil […]

1954 American Petroleum Institute Smoke and Fumes Committee Article “The Petroleum Industry Sponsors Air Pollution Research”

This document is a 1954 article written by Vance Jenkins on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute’s Smoke and Fumes Committee, titled “The Petroleum Industry Sponsors Air Pollution Research.”  The article reveals that oil industry executives were aware that air pollution could become a “very serious problem” as early as the 1920’s. Jenkins argues that government […]