Gas Crisis of 1973 
The plans for the first gas crisis started in August of 1973 as the Arab Nations would prepare for war with Israel. On October 17, 1973 the OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) who were the Arab members of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) announced they would no longer ship oil to countries that supported Israel, like the United States. Around this time OPEC members agreed to use their power over the world and become the world price setting instrument to raise the prices of oil throughout the world. OPEC cut production of oil and placed an embargo on all deliveries of crude oil to the Western world, including the United States and the Netherlands. Not many Americans really understood what was happening to our economy as most thought that the oil companies were U.S. owned, very few people realized then that we no longer were a super power of oil production but rather a crude oil whore that sold out long ago.
Little did we know this was the beginning of the end of an important segment in the American lifestyle as we knew of in the past. This would be the start of a major change in the U.S. automobile market and ripple through our economy to affect all Americans in ways that could not be imagined. This opened America's front door to a new wave of imported vehicles and left the U.S. auto manufacturers watching the compact cars drive by their showrooms as they could not change their traditional ways of production fast enough to produce higher MPG vehicles. The new generation of auto buyers who were part of the baby boomer generation got pleasure from going against the U.S. establishment and purchased foreign autos and mocked America along the way, what they didn't understand was that they were putting their brothers & fathers and eventually themselves in the unemployment line contributing to the loss of many American jobs. Needless to say we faced a recession that was a start of things to come for many years ahead.
The plans for the first gas crisis started in August of 1973 as the Arab Nations would prepare for war with Israel. On October 17, 1973 the OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) who were the Arab members of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) announced they would no longer ship oil to countries that supported Israel, like the United States. Around this time OPEC members agreed to use their power over the world and become the world price setting instrument to raise the prices of oil throughout the world. OPEC cut production of oil and placed an embargo on all deliveries of crude oil to the Western world, including the United States and the Netherlands. Not many Americans really understood what was happening to our economy as most thought that the oil companies were U.S. owned, very few people realized then that we no longer were a super power of oil production but rather a crude oil whore that sold out long ago.
Little did we know this was the beginning of the end of an important segment in the American lifestyle as we knew of in the past. This would be the start of a major change in the U.S. automobile market and ripple through our economy to affect all Americans in ways that could not be imagined. This opened America's front door to a new wave of imported vehicles and left the U.S. auto manufacturers watching the compact cars drive by their showrooms as they could not change their traditional ways of production fast enough to produce higher MPG vehicles. The new generation of auto buyers who were part of the baby boomer generation got pleasure from going against the U.S. establishment and purchased foreign autos and mocked America along the way, what they didn't understand was that they were putting their brothers & fathers and eventually themselves in the unemployment line contributing to the loss of many American jobs. Needless to say we faced a recession that was a start of things to come for many years ahead.
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