[BabyPeanut]

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washi ... rial2.html
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')PINION

From the July 29, 2005 print edition
Guest Comment
Get ready for return of the bad '70s
James Breiner

In 1973 we saw human behavior at its worst. The Arab oil embargo created panic. People feared that they wouldn't be able to get their next gallon of gasoline, so they did what people do: They lined up at gasoline stations to get theirs.

Everyone was topping off their tanks. Fistfights broke out when people felt others had cut into the line. People with license plates ending in even numbers were supposed to go to the gas station only on even-numbered days, and the same with odd numbers. Highway speed limits were reduced to 55 mph everywhere from 75 and 70 in order to conserve fuel.

We were living in New England, where many people relied on fuel oil to heat their homes. The previous tenant in a house we rented had scrounged up a couple of 50-gallon drums and had his supplier fill them with the precious fuel oil to ensure that he wouldn't run out that winter. That behavior, multiplied a few hundred thousand times, worsened the shortage.

People started using their long-neglected fireplaces and burned everything from wood to coal, causing all kinds of problems with ventilation and fire safety. There was a run on firewood. Enterprising wood-suppliers jacked up the price and stacked their wood in creative ways so that more air could fill out a cord.

The price of gasoline was 36 cents a gallon, or, about $1.64 in today's dollars.

For a while, we changed our behavior. We bought smaller European and Japanese cars. Gas-guzzling American-made land cruisers declined in popularity.

Changes in tax laws encouraged people to install energy-saving devices in their homes. Some of these devices may actually have worked, but a lot of them were simply created to feed an enormous, insatiable demand.

A friend of mine had a geothermal system installed in his house that used well water to assist in cooling and heating his home. He took a $7,000 tax credit, which was a lot of money in the 1970s. If he hadn't had the tax credit, it would have taken him years to amortize the investment with reduced energy consumption.

The cost of energy became a factor in every business decision, from the types of windows installed in office buildings to the type of HVAC plant installed in a public building (it was a question of whether fuel oil, natural gas or electricity was the cheapest and most efficient way to get the job done).

After a while, though, people forgot. They built bigger houses farther and farther from where they worked, went to school and shopped. When was the last time you heard someone discuss the energy bills of a home they were thinking about buying? In the 1970s, this was on everyone's mind.

Compared with 30 years ago, people really aren't feeling the pain of higher fuel prices. In the early 1970s, inflation was approaching double-digits every year. So with little pain, they see no reason to change.

Gasoline prices are two and three times higher today in Europe than they are here. The news in the United Kingdom is that the price in Scotland passed 1 pound per litre over the weekend, or about $6.60 a gallon. In Italy and France, the price is about $5.50 a gallon.

Meanwhile, we are living in a fool's paradise. Big automobiles made a comeback in the new form that we now see everywhere.

If you take a drive down the country roads in northern Baltimore County, you will drive past field and forest and suddenly an island of enormous homes will appear. The people who live here are not farmers and factory workers. They are probably commuters.

It just isn't costing them that much, relatively speaking, to fuel their vehicles and homes.

No one has turned off the spigot yet. We have an abundance of space, relatively cheap land and relatively cheap fuel. So we see no reason to change.

I am not anxious to revisit the bad old 1970s.

But I fear what will happen when someone turns off the spigot.

James Breiner is publisher of Baltimore Business Journal.


© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.

[aldente]

Monte was able to get access to an archived Carter speech which he shared with us in an earlier thread. For those who missed it here it is again:
Carter 1977

[CarlinsDarlin]

Great article. Thanks for sharing it. While I was reading, I was thinking of my life during the 70's. I am 38. Many people my age are in powerful positions, or are certainly on their way up the ladder, so to speak. Why do I bring this up?

Because I don't really remember the 70's oil embargo - I was around for it, but was really too young to even pay attention to the news. I started first grade in 1972. And those in my age group are in positions to adress peak oil but don't have a clue what they're up against except, perhaps, from articles like this one. At least those old enough to remember the last time around can have an appreciation of the chain of events that is starting.

Perhaps this is why a large segment of the population seems oblivious. It's a generational thing. They don't have the collective memory, so they are doomed to repeat the mistake. Maybe those Fourth Turning folks have it right afterall .

K

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('CarlinsDarlin', 'B')ecause I don't really remember the 70's oil embargo - I was around for it, but was really too young to even pay attention to the news.

[Leanan]

The author is worried about what will happen "when someone turns off the spigot." The implication being those evil oil-owning foreigners, I guess. Nary a word on what will happen if it's Mother Nature turning off the spigot.

[rockdoc123]

Interesting, but I remember seeing some comments from folks in another similar thread where they mentioned that they never experienced any petrol lineups where they lived. My understanding is it was bad in some places but never happened elsewhere. Where I lived we saw high gas prices but no lineups.
Someone also mentioned that once they changed the rule from "maximum fillup" to "minimum fillup" the lines pretty much dissappeared because it got rid of the folks who were continually topping off their tank.

Anyways I hope we aren't forced to revisit the greater evil of the seventies: DISCO

[Leanan]

Yes, part of the problem was that the distribution was really screwy. Some people had no trouble at all, others had to camp out overnight if they hoped to get gas.

[BabyPeanut]

1970$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat If They Gave A War And Nobody Came?

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')PINION

From the July 29, 2005 print edition
Guest Comment
Get ready for return of the bad '70s
James Breiner

People with license plates ending in even numbers were supposed to go to the gas station only on even-numbered days, and the same with odd numbers.

[Aaron]

Who here has ever seen a locking gas cap?

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', 'W')ho here has ever seen a locking gas cap?

[alpha480v]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', 'W')ho here has ever seen a locking gas cap?

[Pops]

But who has seen one lately?

[BabyPeanut]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/ ... 3237.shtml
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Fuel Thefts On The Rise

August 1, 2005

(CBS) There's a crime wave sweeping the nation that hasn't been seen since the Bee Gees were on 8-track — and cars were so big they needed a docking permit.

The price of gas has gotten so high it's now worth stealing, CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan reports, and police haven't seen it this bad since the fuel shortages of the 1970's.

[I_Like_Plants]

I sure remember locking caps, and even considered getting one 3 times: Mid-90s, caught some kids siphoning gas out of my friend's HUGE van, lol! Suggested he get a locking cap, but then I guess he'd have nothing to bitch about, he preferred to get stuff stolen etc then complain all the livelong day. Another time, got in my car and gas read next to empty, I thought maybe some gas siphoners were at work - I went to a gas stn to fill it up, and it was full - it was a gauge problem. Third time, a bunch of cars in the parking area here including mine, had the gas cap covers flipped open. I thought it might be time to get a locking cap if gas turned out to be missing, but instead it was another kind of opportunist, you see, here in the Bay Area a lot of people put their key or their spare key inside that little compartment that's covered by the little door. They were looking for those.

Now I don't have a car, so it's not a worry.

[thorn]

I had one on my old 8 cyl Chevy truck that has dual tanks! 21 gal * 2! Now with gas at $2.25 it would cost over $90 to fill it! I filled it up in the spring when gas was under $2. My parents bought the truck in 76, they gave it to me a couple of years ago since they are getting older and never used it much. I only use it around our farm to haul wood and hay now and then. I think it gets maybe 10-12MPG. I would guess you could still buy locking gas caps, or maybe a good business to get into now that prices have gone up so much?

I took the cap off since it was more of a pain to deal with the key. My dad would only keep one side filled so keep the locking cap on the filled tank.
I might have to find if before the hoards of suburbanite refugees come around.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'T')hird time, a bunch of cars in the parking area here including mine, had the gas cap covers flipped open

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'T')hird time, a bunch of cars in the parking area here including mine, had the gas cap covers flipped open

[Jake_old]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'w')ith a knife you just crawl under the car and cut the rubber line in the filler tube then siphon from there. It's more annoying but really only an extra minutes worth of work.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yeah, the little door doesn't lock any more, for a while there they made cars where when the car was locked, the little door was locked, but not any more. My 92 BMW was like that, car locked, little door was locked. but my '03 Saturn and '05 Saturn not like that.

Be prepared for a whole new era of locking gas caps - $90 worth of gas beats the hell out of some of the other things crackheads steal that they only get $20 or so for, like your new bike you keep on your patio. etc.

Now, in the Bay Area, it seems it's commonly done to leave your spare CAR KEY inside that little chamber where the gas cap is. Say you go to Shoreline park to windsurf, you take your car key and open the little door and lay the key in there, so you can get it and not have to carry it with you (wetsuits have no pockets). Dumb, huh?