1980s oil glut cause 1970s energy crisis
United States
In April 1979, U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order to remove price controls from petroleum products by October 1981 so that prices would be wholly determined by the free market. Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, signed an executive order on 28 January 1981, which enacted that reform immediately, allowing the free market to adjust oil prices in the United States. That ended the withdrawal of old oil from the market and artificial scarcity, which encouraged an increase in oil production. The U.S. oil windfall profits tax was lowered in August 1981 and removed in 1988, ending disincentives to U.S. oil producers.Additionally, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System began pumping oil in 1977. The Alaskan Prudhoe Bay Oil Field entered peak production, supplying 2 million bpd of crude oil in 1988, 25 percent of all U.S. oil production.