Jimmy Carter's Energy Crisis

Not only facing increasing economic problems, President Carter faced a severe Energy Crisis, in which energy prices were spiraling out of control. Carter attempted to counteract these high prices by attempting to pass legislation helping curtail energy prices. But, as stated by Political Science Professor John Burke, Carter’s bill on Energy Policy was responsible for the  “[creation of] the Department of Energy” but the key provisions on “ pricing [plans] for natural gas, a gas-guzzler tax on cars and levies on crude oil were defeated”(35). But, Burke went onto explain that this bill ultimately made the Oil Crisis of 1979 “more severe” because the “important conservation measures [were] abandoned” (35).

Here is Carter's speech concerning the Energy Crisis and other American problems during his first two weeks in the job:




  One of Carter’s suggestions seen in the video was to  “[keep] our thermostats…at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night”, which he believed would “save half the current shortage of natural gas”. Carter attempted to give suggestion to the American people but, in reality, came off as naïve and incapable of understanding the audience in the problem.He fell trap to his own idealistic words that got him into trouble throughout his first hundred days.



Source:

Burke, John P. "Jimmy Carter: Transition and Early Presidency." Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Presidency: Seventy-six Case Studies in Presidential Leadership. By David M. Abshire and Center for the Study of the Presidency. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001. 32-36. Print.