Teapot Dome scandal Teapot Dome was regarded as the "greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics". It damaged the reputation of the Harding administration, which was already severely diminished by its controversial handling of the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 and Harding's veto of the Bonus Bill in 1922. In the early 20th century, the U.S. Navy largely converted from coal to fuel oil. To ensure that the Navy would always have enough fuel available, several oil-producing areas were designated as naval oil reserves by President Taft. In 1921, President Harding issued an executive order that transferred control of
Oil reserves in the United States four sites on the Gulf of Mexico, with a total capacity of of crude oil. The maximum total withdrawal capability from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve is per day. This is roughly 32% of US oil imports, or 75% of imports from OPEC. Services under the U.S. Department of the Interior estimate the total volume of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in the United States to be roughly . Over 1 million exploratory and developmental crude oil wells have already been drilled in the US since 1949. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates undiscovered technically recoverable crude oil onshore