For almost four decades America has had to deal with the costs and consequences on an ongoing energy crisis. But back in the 1970s, when the worldwide balance of energy power suddenly shifted from the buyers to the sellers, there were no precedents and no guidelines. The newly-elected President Nixon and his administration had to break new ground and chart new courses. In June 1971, he sent Congress the first ever message from a President dealing with energy resources.
In October 1973, the Yom Kippur War, turned the Middle East into a Cold War flashpoint between the US and the USSR, and triggered the Arab oil embargo. As the supply of gasoline dwindled prices went through the roof. Long lines surrounded the increasingly few gas stations that had any supply. As Prime Minister Golda Meir later said, Richard Nixon saved Israel. But the price for standing by our ally was high. The economic effect on America was devastating.
President Nixon acted swiftly on the domestic front. He called on Congress to pass emergency energy legislation. He also mandated a cut in federal government usage by 20 percent, and created a cabinet level energy regulatory agency that became the basis for today’s Department of Energy. In November 1973, he took the unprecedented step of addressing the nation from the Oval Office on the subject of the energy crisis — not once but twice.
In his memoirs, President Nixon wrote “It can be said that the energy crisis of 1974 had at least one positive effect. It made energy consciousness a part of American life.”
Participants include:
Richard M. Fairbanks:
Ambassador Fairbanks was Assistant to EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus before going on to serve as the Associate Director of the White House Domestic Council for Energy and Natural Resources. In 1981, he returned to government service as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, and in 1982, he was appointed to the rank of Ambassador as the Chief Negotiator of the Middle East peace process. He is a Trustee, Counselor, and former President of CSIS.
James R. Schlesinger, Jr.:
Dr. Schlesinger was the first U.S. Secretary of Energy, serving in the Carter Administration from 1977 to 1979. He served in several high level positions in the Nixon Administration including Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Director of Central Intelligence, and Secretary of Defense, a post he held during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the Energy Crisis of 1974.
James J. Tozzi:
Dr. Tozzi is the head of the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, a non-profit organization established to provide Congress with independent analyses of agency regulations. He started his career in the Nixon White House as Chief of Environment at the Office of Management and Budget, before going on to serve as Assistant Director of the OMB in the Carter White House, and Deputy Administrator in the Reagan White House.
Guy F. Caruso, Moderator:
Mr. Caruso was the Middle East oil analyst in the Office Economic Research at the Central Intelligence Agency from 1969 to 1974. He currently is Senior Advisor, Energy and National Security program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC. Prior to joining CSIS Caruso served as Administrator, Energy Information Administration (EIA) from July 2002 to September 2008. Before leading EIA, Mr. Caruso acquired over 30 years of energy experience, emphasizing topics relating to energy markets, policy, and security. Caruso held senior management positions in the US Department of Energy and the International Energy Agency in Paris, France.
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Nixon Alumni Discuss the '73 Energy Crisis
Three Nixon administration officials who formulated and executed the thirty-seventh President’s energy policy convened at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington last Wednesday. The occasion was the 38th anniversary of America’s first energy crisis, when the 1973 OPEC Oil Embargo clashed with an ever increasing national demand for energy resources.
The high level officials included Ambassador Richard Fairbanks, who served as Domestic Council Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment; James J. Tozzi, former Chief of Environment at the Office of Management and Budget; and James R. Schlesinger, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Agency, Director of Central Intelligence, and Secretary of Defense to President Nixon, and the first-ever Secretary of Energy, serving under President Carter. Guy F. Cauruso, CSIS’s resident energy expert, moderated the program.
Their discussion focused on how the President had to immediately create a framework to help stabilize prices domestically, while simultaneously assuaging the oil producing countries to end their embargo and continue exporting to the United States.
Amb. Fairbanks credited RN with always looking over the horizon and trying to be in front of the most critical issues of his time.
President Nixon established “research and development, conservation, [and] substantive programs in all of the areas people have talked about ever since,” Ambassador Fairbanks concluded the program saying.
“All of the institutions, all of the substantive areas were all begun to be addressed and put on the national agenda very early in the game by the first President even to see the issue.”
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