Petroleum & public safety : risk management in the Gulf South, 1901-2015 / James B. McSwain.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McSwain, James B., 1948- author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Series:

Making the modern South

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Risk management.

Petroleum engineering.

Industrial safety.

Petroleum industry and trade.

United States--Gulf States.

Petroleum industry and trade--Gulf States--Safety measures--20th century.

Petroleum engineering--Gulf States--Safety measures--20th century.

Risk management--Gulf States--20th century.

Petroleum engineering--Safety measures.

Petroleum industry and trade--Safety measures.

Physical Description:

xxii, 364 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Petroleum and public safety

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2018]

Summary:

"Using an array of research in original sources, including fire-prevention publications, newspapers, municipal records, fire-insurance documents, and risk management literature, James McSwain reveals how city officials in Houston, Galveston, New Orleans and Mobile created standards based on technical, scientific and engineering knowledge to devise politically-workable ordinances that controlled the storage and handling of fuel oil. Throughout the twentieth century, these municipalities pursued the risk management of flammable and combustible liquids, adopting voluntary, consensual fire codes issued by code creators such as the National Board of Fire Underwriters, the National Fire Protection Association, and the Southern Standard Building Code Conference. The apex of such efforts was the International Fire Code, a joint venture cooperatively undertaken by the merger of these code groups. Each city had lengthy controversies about the regulation of crude petroleum and fuel oil. In devising ordinances, city officials pursued the politics of risk management, as they hammered out strategies to eliminate or mitigate petroleum hazards and reduce the possible consequences of catastrophic oil explosions or fires. McSwain shows that Gulf South cities, in step with incremental industrialization and public acceptance of risk management in an increasingly complex world, shared with communities throughout the South and the nation a role in modernization characterized by rule-driven, bureaucratic management of states and municipalities spurred on by two world wars and an expanding federal government"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Petroleum and nineteenth-century risk culture

Fire hazards and petroleum risks in Mobile, Alabama, 1894-1910

Risk management in the Bayou City : fuel oil in Houston, 1901-1914

Competition and conflagration : exploiting and regulating fuel oil in New Orleans, 1943

Hazards, risks, and vulnerability : Galveston, Texas, 1901-1937

Conclusion

Epilogue : risk management of flammable liquids in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780807169124

0807169129

OCLC:

1032287891