Within just a few weeks of being selected for this position, Fall slyly convinced Harding to call for the transfer of the naval petroleum reserves in Elk Hills and Teapot Dome belonging to the Navy, to the Department of the Interior, arguing that he and the department would be a more suitable overseer to ensure that the areas were not to be producing oil, but kept in the case that the Navy needed emergency oil for any wartime duties. Edwin Denby, the Secretary of the Navy, agreed to transfer the reserves and the Teapot Dome oil field was then under the control of Albert Fall. What came about from this became known as the Teapot Dome