Obituary: Robert Engler: Writer Assailed Oil Industry on Accountability

[MountainLaurel]

Robert Engler, 84, a political scientist whose fascination with the control of institutional power led to authoritative books and essays criticizing the modern oil industry, died Feb. 23 at his home in Manhattan, N.Y. He had a heart ailment.

Dr. Engler wrote from a progressive political bent, one skeptical of the "bottom-line" profit motive of petroleum giants. He wished to substitute a business approach that was "economically just, ecologically sane and politically accountable," an attractive idea to some after the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the crisis that followed.

His greatest admirers tended to be liberal economists, including Robert Lekachman, who called Dr. Engler's 1977 book, "The Brotherhood of Oil," "the best single account of the organization and politics of this industry that I have come across."

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said Dr. Engler was an "early bell-ringer" in outlining the oil lobby's influence in Washington after World War II and showing how the largest companies divided up world markets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/05/AR2007030501529.html