So there were no shortages, and there were no gasoline lines. We don't need government invovlement to do research for new forms of energy. The pricing mechanism of the free market will take care of that. If current sources of energy ever start to have major increases in price, then this increase in price sends a signal to the private sector to look for new sources of energy, and new fuel supplies. And consumers will buy the products that they see as being the best fit for their wants and needs, and their budget.
Businesses make money by responding to the desires of their customers.
We don't need the govenrment to get involved here. For example, look at what Rockefeller did. His company did research that made it a lot easier to find oil, and a lot easier to get it out of the ground. This gave us a huge amount of new energy. And it caused the price to drop by a huge amount.