Oil Pollution Act of 1990 timely evidence that oil spills were not uncommon. Alaska Governor Steve Cowper authorized the creation of the Alaska Oil Spill Commission in 1989 to examine the causes of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and issue recommendations on potential policy changes. Cowper appointed Walter B. Parker, a longtime transportation consultant and public official, as the chairman of the commission. Under Parker, the Commission issued 52 recommendations for improvements to industry, state, and federal regulations. 50 of these recommendations were worked into the Oil Pollution Act bill that was introduced into legislation on March 16, 1989 by Walter B. Jones, Sr., a
1969 Santa Barbara oil spill which devastated coastal areas in both England and France, and the burning of the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. At the time, the Santa Barbara spill was the largest oil spill ever in U.S. waters, and its occurrence during a fierce battle between local residents and the very oil company responsible for the spill only made the controversy more intense, the battle more public, and the anti-oil cause seem more valid to a wider segment of the populace. In the several years after the spill, more environmental legislation was passed than in any other similar period in U.S. history.