As early as the 1970s specific property purchasers in the United States undertook studies resembling current Phase I ESAs, to assess risks of ownership of commercial properties which had a high degree of risk from prior toxic chemical use or disposal. Many times these studies were preparatory to understanding the nature of cleanup costs if the property was being considered for redevelopment or change of land use.
In the United States of America demand increased dramatically for this type of study in the 1980s following judicial decisions related to liability of property owners to effect site cleanup.  Interpreting the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), the U.S. courts have held that a buyer, lessor, or lender may be held responsible for remediation of hazardous substance residues, even if a prior owner caused the contamination; performance of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, according to the courts reasoning, creates a safe harbor, known as the Innocent Landowner Defense'. The original standard under CERCLA for establishing an innocent landowner defense was based upon the requirement to perform a "all appropriate inquiry" prior to ownership transfer. At such time, engineering firms started performing professional engineering reports under a variety of monikers including, "Environmental Audits", "Property Transfer Screens", "Environmental Due-Diligence Reports" and "Environmental Site Assessments". In 1991, [https://impactenvironmental.com/history/ Impact Environmental] coined the industry term, “Environmental Site Assessment” to replace the commonly used "Environmental Audit” for property transfer studies. A 1990 Court decision, No. 89-8094 (11th Cir. May 23, 1990), United States v. Fleet Factors Corp. found that a secured creditor can be liable for property contamination under the strict, joint and several liability scheme outlined in CERCLA. As a result of this decision, banks elevated their demands for pre-transfer all appropriate inquiries to hedge against financial risk. Starting in the New York market among banks and regional environmental consulting engineers, the term-of-choice evolved to be the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment. 
In 1998 the necessity of performing a Phase I ESA was underscored by congressional action in passing the Superfund Cleanup Acceleration Act of 1998.  This act requires purchasers of commercial property to perform a Phase I study meeting the specific standard of ASTM E1527: Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process.
The most recent standard is "Standards and Practices for All Appropriate Inquiries" 40 Code of Federal Regulations, Section 312 which drew heavily from ASTM E1527-13, which is the ASTM Standard for conducting All Appropriate Inquiry (AAI) for the environmental assessment of a real property.  Previous guidances regarding the ASTM E1527 standard were ASTM E1527-97, ASTM E1527-00, and ASTM E1527-05.
Residential property purchasers are only required to conduct a site inspection and chain of title survey.