'70s Gas Crisis Sounds a Lot Like Today

The gas pinch will be good for us.

For the first time in decades, Americans have been forced to realize that there is a limit to our bounties.

I’m really glad in a way that it happened. It is a sobering thing. If offers all of us a little perspective. I’m sure some people cannot believe Americans could run out of gas. But, we did. And, it is not a phony holdback by the oil companies, either.

Maybe more of us can now start contemplating the idea that the automobile is not the status symbol it is cracked up to be. America is the only nation in the world when a man is able to afford a Ford, he buys a Cadillac.

I am convinced that we can reduce gasoline consumption 30% in the country without any real inconvenience to anyone. Our staff members are starting to share rides to work and walk to lunch at nearby restaurants. Yesterday, I bought a 1967 Volkswagen that runs like a top. I figure it will use about one-fourth of the gas of the guzzler I have been driving.

A cursory check of car dealers indicates that small economy cars are selling like hotcakes and the bicycle business is booming. There is a national movement afoot to promote the use of bicycle lanes in suburban areas which would tie to “bike shelters.” From these shelters buses would make express runs on frequent schedules to downtown.

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The gas pinch is a good dose of medicine, but I don’t think anybody likes the idea of depending on [Middle-Eastern] oil to supply nearly half of the nation’s need. When you translate the amount of American money the [Persian Gulf countries] will receive in future years for their oil, it is frightening.

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Now that this sort of situation faces us, I think for the first time we can all see that conservation is really a personal very. It is a matter of changing wasteful or harmful habits. And, it seems very obvious to me that we can eliminate much of the oil problem not just by securing more oil but by using less on an individual basis.

I guess every VM owner has a right to be a little self righteous. Forgive me.

-- From Florida Trend: August 1973