US Presidency
1977

One problem is that the price of all energy is going up, both because of its increasing scarcity and because the price of oil is not set in a free and competitive market. The world price is set by a foreign cartel, the governments of the so-called OPEC nations. That price is now almost five times as great as it was in 1973. Our biggest problem, however, is that we simply use too much and waste too much energy. Our imports have more than tripled in the last 10 years. Although all countries could, of course, be more efficient, we are the worst offender. Since the great price rise in 1973, the Japanese have cut their oil imports, the Germans, the French, the British, the Italians have all cut their oil imports. Meanwhile, although we have large petroleum supplies of our own and most of them don't, we in the United States have increased our imports more than 40 percent. This problem has come upon us suddenly.