Teapot Dome scandal Teapot Dome scandal The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 19211923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, and two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding. The leases were the subject of a sensational investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies, Fall became the first presidential cabinet member to go to prison; no one was convicted of paying the bribes. Before the Watergate scandal,
History of the oil shale industry in the United States of its value, falling from US$3.50 at the start of 1921, to US$1.25 at year-end. Imported oil peaked at 127 million barrels in 1923, then dropped by more than half, to 62 million in 1925. The drop in oil price, and the increased production from new fields, put a damper on speculation that the US was about to run out of oil. Oil shale could not economically compete with petroleum priced below US$2 per barrel, especially given that the productive shale areas were far from major petroleum markets. Cheap petroleum prices had driven oil shale out of business. Some companies