In October 1973, Israel had a war with a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. It is referred to as the Yom Kippur War, the Ramadan War, or the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. The who’s and why’s and wherefore’s of this war don’t matter for the purposes of this article. Except the fact that the United States supported Israel and Israel inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Arab forces.
I was a young teenager at the time. I lived in Virginia and the war was far away and distant. I didn’t care. . . until I did.
In the aftermath of that war, the Arab nations, led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo against those nations that they perceived helped Israel during the war. This is known today as the 1973 Oil Crisis or the 1973 Oil Embargo. The Embargo lasted from October 1973 until March 1974, but its effects on the United States and myself lasted for many years.
During the oil crisis, there were long lines for gasoline at every filling station. In our town, many stations adopted a rationing system where you could only fill up on even or odd days depending on the last digit of your license plate. And, you could only get a certain number of gallons. Of course, the price of gasoline quadrupled during this time with the price of a barrel of oil going from $3 to $12. This doesn’t seem like much today. But, remember that everything is relative. As of this writing today, the price of a barrel of oil is around $55. Imagine if the price went up to $220 in five months.
The effect on world oil prices in 1973 was staggering. People couldn’t afford heating oil or even get it. There were lines everywhere for gasoline. There arose gasoline thieves who would drop a siphon hose into your tank in the middle of the night and steal the gasoline right out of your tank. And, in January 1974, Congress enacted the 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act which mandated a maximum speed limit throughout the nation of 55 mph. This law wasn’t repealed until 1995, so we lived with the results of the 1973 Oil Crisis for decades.
The United States has gone through similar events that required rationing and sacrifice from its citizens in the past. During the World Wars, items such as gasoline, sugar, steel and rubber were rationed to support the war effort. People had ration cards and there arose a black market for many items. Likewise, in 1974, gasoline ration cards were printed by the US Government, but were never used.
If it has happened in the past, it most surely can and will happen in the future.
So, what would you do if this were to happen? What can be done? Transportation is critical to our daily lives. Think of all the deliveries from online stores that would be stopped dead in their tracks if we had a major problem with oil supplies. I’m interested in your comments.