ENERGY CRISIS OF THE 1970s

ENERGY CRISIS OF THE 1970s. The energy crisis of the 1970s damaged the American economy and decisively affected presidential politics. Retaliating for Western support of Israel in the October 1973 Mideast War, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) temporarily barred oil sales to the United States and dramatically raised prices for all customers. In six months the price of a barrel of crude oil soared from three to eighteen dollars. President Richard M. Nixon advocated conservation and development of domestic energy sources, and also signed legislation controlling the prices charged by domestic oil producers. In 1975 Congress rejected President Gerald Ford's proposal to decontrol domestic oil and natural gas to increase supply. Rising energy prices contributed to the economic “stagflation” that cost Ford the 1976 election.

Although President Jimmy Carter called the energy crisis the “moral equivalent of war,” Americans remained divided on the causes and cure of the problem. In 1978 Carter secured legislation that fostered conservation and decontrolled the price of some domestic natural gas. The Iranian revolution allowed OPEC again to raise prices rapidly in 1979. As stagflation worsened and lines of angry motorists formed at gas stations, Carter diagnosed a “crisis of confidence” and urged citizens to build their character by coping with austerity. Ridiculed as a prophet of “malaise” and blamed for the sagging economy, Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980. During the early 1980s, conservation, an international recession, and development of new fuel sources brought down energy prices. As memories of the crisis faded, the United States steadily increased its dependence on imported petroleum.
See also Automotive Industry; Business; Environmentalism; Foreign Relations: U.S. Relations with the Middle East; Hydroelectric Power; Nuclear Power; Petroleum Industry.

Bibliography

Crauford D. Goodwin, ed., Energy Policy in Perspective, 1981.
Franklin Tugwell , The Energy Crisis and the American Political Economy, 1988.

Leo P. Ribuffo