15 Energy Crises and Technologies
William McGlone
15.1 Introduction
Keywords
- OAPEC – Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC)
- Richard Nixon – was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974.
- Yom-Kippur War – was an armed conflict fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.
- Incandescent light bulbs – emitting light as a result of being heated.
- Fluorescent light bulbs – a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light.
- General Electric – a multinational electric solutions company founded in 1892.
- LEDs – a semiconductor diode that glows when a voltage is applied.
- Phantom Tube – mimicked the electrical characteristics of a regular fluorescent tube
- BWR – A boiling water reactor uses demineralized water as a coolant and neutron moderator.
- Krypton Bulb – These lights are incandescent, but they have had some modifications made to them.
- Three Mile Island – a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 reactor in Pennsylvania, United States.
- Illumination Engineering Society – an industry-backed, not-for-profit, learned society that was founded in New York City. Their mission is to improve life through quality of light.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer – He is often referred to as the “father” of the atomic bomb.
Learning Objectives
- By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:
- Uncover the political environment surrounding the ’70s energy crisis
- Analyze the economic and technological factors contributing to its severity
- Explore developments in energy and subsequent skepticism
- Think about how this affects the future
Political systems never live up to the standard of one hundred percent efficiency. There are inconsistencies and uncertainties. Since the birth of civilization, this has been a known truth. The baby boomer generation was born between 1946 – 1964, living through progressive times in their adult life. Applying this to the baby boomer time frame can provide insight into the energy crisis that greatly affected them. OAPEC is an organization of oil-exporting countries and makes up a large majority of the oil market. The organization issued an embargo on oil exports to the United States when Richard Nixon, the 37th president, offered financial assistance to Israel in the Yom-Kippur War. This was a short war launched by Egypt, Syria, and their allies against Israel. The cost of oil skyrocketed, contributing to new energy solutions and methods of handling this crisis.
Oil prices rose 350% and inflicted chaos on the entire American economy. Transportation and cost of living increased significantly during this period. Therefore, policymakers and engineers had to respond to save energy and decrease costs for the average consumer. Energy efficiency became a large industry where energy-saving lights and solutions were created. New research was conducted on the many ways to s