Oil Crisis & End of Cheap Energy

• Oil Crisis


  Dramatic rises in prices of oil resulted in an energy crisis
• 6% of world's population Americans consumed ⅓ of the world's oil production- roughly 30% of the oil Americans consumed was imported mostly from the Middle East
• Nixon's support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War (1973)


  Led to an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Oil Embargo in the US
• The end of the Embargo followed by a 387% hike in the price of oil that damaged the American economy that Americans had to pay around 30% more for heating oil and petrol
• 1974- a strike by 100,000 independent truckers demanding lower fuel prices


  Brought nations roads to a standstill for 11 days and left stores with empty shelves
• Harsh winter of 1976-77- natural gas shortage


  1. Forced closure of schools and factories

  2. Fuel stations closed on Sundays or cut their hours in order to conserve supplies

  3. Long queues developed at petrol pumps
• First American Energy Riot- Levittown, Pennsylvania- truckers barricaded expressways- 100 injured, 179 arrested from 2 nights of violence
• Late 1977- 165,000 United Mine Workers began a 3 month strike


  Coal shortage led to school closures and shortened working weeks in the Eastern USA
• In 1979 half the nation's petrol stations were without fuel and those that had it were charging 50% more than the year before. Drivers queued for petrol on specified days, often for several hours