Robert Engler, 84; Writer Assailed Oil Industry on Accountability

Robert Engler, 84, a political scientist whose fascination with the control of institutional power led to authoritative books and essays criticizing the modern oil industry, died Feb. 23 at his home in Manhattan, N.Y. He had a heart ailment.

Dr. Engler wrote from a progressive political bent, one skeptical of the "bottom-line" profit motive of petroleum giants. He wished to substitute a business approach that was "economically just, ecologically sane and politically accountable," an attractive idea to some after the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the crisis that followed.

His greatest admirers tended to be liberal economists, including Robert Lekachman, who called Dr. Engler's 1977 book, "The Brotherhood of Oil," "the best single account of the organization and politics of this industry that I have come across."

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said Dr. Engler was an "early bell-ringer" in outlining the oil lobby's influence in Washington after World War II and showing how the largest companies divided up world markets.

Dr. Engler, a professor emeritus of political science at the City University of New York, first made his name with "The Politics of Oil" (1961). The book arose from articles he wrote for the New Republic about the oil industry and politics, which won the Sidney Hillman Foundation prize honoring writers on social justice and public policy issues.

Combing through government and company records, his work illuminated the special tax, pricing and political requests of oil companies and their effect on national and foreign policy. He was sometimes asked to testify before congressional committees.

Dr. Engler assailed what he called the lack of public accountability among the petroleum giants, which he likened to a "private government." He said that even ranking government officials -- from state attorneys general to the CIA director -- had a hard time getting companies to divulge information on oil shipments and reserves at vital times.

Mr. Engler was born July 12, 1922, in the Bronx, N.Y., to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He was a 1942 social science graduate of what is now City College of the City University of New York. On the GI Bill after World War II, he received a doctorate in government from the University of Wisconsin in 1947.

He spent the war in the Army in Europe and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp. His wartime experiences shaped his interest in political power.

He was an assistant to James G. Patton, longtime president of the National Farmers Union, before entering academia. He spent 18 years as a political science professor at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., before joining the CUNY faculty in 1969. He retired in 1991.

He contributed to "The Dissenting Academy" (1968), edited by counterculture authority Theodore Roszak. Dr. Engler edited "America's Energy" (1980), a collection of articles from the Nation magazine.

In 1985, the Nation devoted a special issue to his essay "Many Bhopals -- Technology Out of Control," which was deeply critical of American industrialization and its environmental impact. The article followed the 1984 leak of toxic gas at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, which killed thousands of people.

His marriage to Rosalind Elowitz Engler ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 38 years, Inea Bushnaq Engler of Manhattan; two children from his first marriage, Richard Engler of Moorestown, N.J., and Elise Engler of Manhattan; a daughter from his second marriage, Nadya Engler Overton of Chicago and Manhattan; and two grandsons.