Robert Engler, 84, a political scientist and authoritative critic big oil companies, died February 23 at his home in Manhattan

A professor emeritus at City University , Engler wrote from a progressive bent, one skeptical of the profit motive of big oil. He wrote that he wished to substitute a business approach that was “economically just, ecologically sane and politically accountable.”

His greatest admirers tended to be liberal economists, including Ralph Nader, who said Engler was an “early bell-ringer” in outlining the oil lobby’s influence in Washington after World War II.

Engler first made his name with “The Politics of Oil” (1961), a collection of articles he wrote for the New Republic .

He 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.

Engler was born July 12, 1922, in the Bronx, to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He attended City College and received a doctorate in government at the University of Wisconsin in 1947.

He spent World War II in the Army and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp.

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.

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.

Survivors include his wife of 38 years, Inea Bushnaq Engler; children Richard Engler, Elise Engler, Nadya Engler Overton, and two grandsons.