This Day in History: 1911-05-15

Breakup of Standard Oil On this day in 1911, the US Supreme Court orders the Standard Oil monopoly to be broken up into smaller companies –These become Standard of California (Chevron), Standard of Ohio (SOHIO), Standard of Indiana (Amoco), and Standard of New York (Mobil), and others. The main company becomes Standard of New Jersey (Exxon), which is still the largest corporation on earth. The breakup of Standard Oil was, in part, a triumph of anti-trust (anti-monopoly) law. Standard had been convicted of illegal business practices, including direct bribery of their competitors management, deceptive pricing practices, illegal restraint of trade. Today, the oil industry in general (and Exxon in particular) still tries to control international energy politics, for example funding climate science denial groups and using inappropriate oil reserve figures that focus political interests inappropriately on the Middle East.