Oil Crisis of the 1970s
Why did the U.S. enter an energy crisis in the 1970s? The United States entered an energy crisis in the 1970s for several reasons that were to some point self-inflicted. One of the contributing factors was the United States involvement in the development and arming of Israel. While the Soviet Union was sending arms to Syria and Egypt, the United States via President Richard Nixon was helping Israel defend their boarders and people by supplying them with arms. This in turn caused an outrage within the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) which in turn placed an embargo on oil exports upon the United States because of the aid and arms that the United States was supplying Israel. This embargo caused fuel shortages such as gasoline which in turn caused fuel prices to soar throughout much of the 1970s. This was further amplified due to the decline of domestic oil production and the reliance on imported oil from abroad.
It only took three months for the embargo to cause massive change in the United States. Not only did the embargo hurt the automotive industry but also everyone who used highways as a speed limit of a mere fifty five miles a hour was imposed to help curtail the consumption of fuel. Other methods of fuel consumption management were used such as having fueling stations closed on certain days of the week as well as limiting what people could do to their homes. One interesting fact to note was that the price of crude oil quadrupled in less than six months. This stemmed from a massive decline in crude production in the OAPEC countries that we imported most of our oil from.
So in conclusion the energy crisis of the 1970s can be looked at in somewhat of a positive way. It expanded other countries automotive markets into the United States as well as starting to prompt our own automotive manufactures to produce more fuel efficient vehicles as
It only took three months for the embargo to cause massive change in the United States. Not only did the embargo hurt the automotive industry but also everyone who used highways as a speed limit of a mere fifty five miles a hour was imposed to help curtail the consumption of fuel. Other methods of fuel consumption management were used such as having fueling stations closed on certain days of the week as well as limiting what people could do to their homes. One interesting fact to note was that the price of crude oil quadrupled in less than six months. This stemmed from a massive decline in crude production in the OAPEC countries that we imported most of our oil from.
So in conclusion the energy crisis of the 1970s can be looked at in somewhat of a positive way. It expanded other countries automotive markets into the United States as well as starting to prompt our own automotive manufactures to produce more fuel efficient vehicles as