ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by gas prices,

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the cost you pay for indigestion.

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All right, here's the excerpt:

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"When I spoke to you earlier, I indicated that the sudden cutoff

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of oil..." [ mumbles ] Middle East.

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In the decade leading up to the oil crisis, America's energy needs were... what?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ car horn honks ]

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What exactly is this question asking?

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Well, we know the oil embargo caused a world of hurt

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for consumers in the United States,

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but we need to figure out what the energy situation

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was when the crisis hit.

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Well, in the decades leading up to the crisis, were America's energy needs

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A - increasing, but were largely met by domestic sources?

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Well, actually, America's domestic sources peaked in the 1970s,

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so the U.S. was definitely looking abroad for that elusive energy fix.

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So it's not A. In the time before the embargo,

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were America's energy needs B - decreasing as a result of conservation efforts?

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America started investing in alternative fuel sources as a result of the embargo,

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since high gas prices made people rethink the power of

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wind, water, and sun. Also, our energy needs

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were definitely increasing at the time. So that knocks out B and D.

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Which means that in the decades leading up to the oil crisis, America's energy needs were

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C - increasing, resulting in an increase in foreign oil imports.

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Bingo. In 1970, foreign oil comprised

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22% of American energy consumption. In 1973, it was 36%.

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So when that embargo hit, well, it hit pretty hard.

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So C is the correct answer.

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By limiting the oil supply, OPEC must have been on some kind of power trip.

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