Walter B. Parker Act, which was signed into law in 1980 by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, spilling an estimated 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a major environmental disaster for the state. Governor Steve Cowper, who held office at the time of the spill, appointed Walter Parker as the chairman of the Alaska Oil Spill Commission in 1989. The Alaska Oil Spill Commission was created by the Alaska state government to investigate the causes of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Oil spill governance in the United States important role in creating external networks for governing oil spills in the U.S. international treaties when signed by the U.S. are on the same level as federal law, hence signatory parties must implement domestic legislation to reflect the agreement. This mechanism helps to engineer a number of federal laws governing oil spills such as the intervention on the High Sea Act of 1974. International conventions serve a key role in developing standards for oil carrying vessels from different nations into the U.S. The two major conventions which have contributed to oil spill governance are the 1969 International Convention Relating to