Summary
“The Petroleum Industry Sponsors Air Pollution Research” is a 1954 article written by Vance Jenkins for the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association. Jenkins wrote the article on on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute’s Smoke and Fumes Committee.
The article confirms that oil industry executives were aware that air pollution could become a “very serious problem” as early as the 1920’s.
Jenkins argued that government regulation cannot solve the air pollution problem, stating “the worst thing that can happen, in many instances, is the hasty passage of a law or laws for the control of a given air pollution situation.” Jenkins disputed a scientific theory of the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District that L.A. smog was attributable to the evaporation of cracked gasoline from oil refineries. Jenkins acknowledged that the theory, widely accepted by the public, could be dangerous to the oil industry.