And with the cheap gasoline of the 1950s and '60s, the autos of the day grew into bulky, finned, chrome-laden battleships. Yet today's roads brim with sport-utility vehicles and homes bulge with electronic gear as Washington declares another energy crisis and takes a run at solving it.
Trouble is, experts say, the nation never successfully found an energy policy a generation ago.
There's plenty of oil in the ground now, and it needs to be used more efficiently. The alarm of the 1970s was heightened by the fact that Americans had been through decades of dependably low gas prices. The nation had seen little need for forecasting oil prices or even worrying much about energy supplies. Created in 1960, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had kept prices low despite rising demand. Arab oil-producing companies banned oil exports to the United States, retaliating for U.S. support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War.