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.
SS Tuxpam (Mexican oil tanker) SS Tuxpam (Mexican oil tanker) The SS "Tuxpam" was an oil tanker, in the service of Petroleos Mexicanos, that was sunk on 27 June 1942 by U-129. She was completed in November 1903 as SS "Prometheus" for Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum GmbH, Hamburg. In 1914 she was laid up at New York City and, in December of that year, sold and renamed SS "Cushing" for Standard Oil of New Jersey, Bayonne. In September 1918, she was requisitioned by the US Navy as "USS Chinampa (SP-1952)" for the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and returned to her owners in May 1919. In 1924 she