Forty years ago this month, Middle Eastern countries shook the West.
Israel had successfully pushed back incursions from Syria and Egypt during the Yom Kippur War, with the help of U.S. reinforcements.
In response, The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC (consisting of the Arab members of OPEC, plus Egypt, Syria and Tunisia) said it would halt all oil exports to America (as well as the Netherlands, Portugal, and South Africa, which had also supported Israel), while cutting overall production.
What followed was massive gas shortages and panic.
Gas stations served by appointment only to regular customers, or closed altogether. Businesses and towns were shutting off electricity to save energy. Some towns even banned Christmas lights to cope with the crisis.
By January 1974, world oil prices were four times higher than they had been at the start of the crisis.
The situation was further complicated by expansionary fiscal policy implemented by President Nixon that predated the embargo, which resulted in inflation.
Forty years later, only 40% of American imports are from OPEC countries. Canada and Mexico are now our largest crude import bases.
Yet many remain obsessed with the idea of "weaning America from Mideast oil."
Two years before the crisis, the EPA had begun its "Documerica" project, dispatching photographers to chronicle environmental situations, and everyday life, in the '70s. Freelance photographer David Falconer was tasked with shooting the oil crisis, and chose Oregon and Washington as his setting. We reproduce the best of his photos here.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/1973-oil-crisis-photos-2013-10?op=1#ixzz2gewmeELZ
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