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Real to Reel: OPEC oil embargo

On Oct. 17, 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced it would cut exports of oil to the United States and other nations providing military aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur war. At the time, OPEC said exports would be reduced by 5 percent each month until Israel evacuated the occupied territories from the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.

VIDEO: Watch the Oct. 17, 1973 broadcast report anchored by John Chancellor

A full embargo was imposed in December, creating a serious energy crisis in the United States. NBC's George Lewis recalls what it was like to cover the embargo announcement and the subsequent fuel shortage: 

I vividly remember the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 because I had just been assigned to the brand new NBC News bureau in Houston when the story broke. Since Houston prides itself as the "energy capital" of America, we were in the thick of the action, talking to oil experts, energy moguls and consumer groups on a daily basis.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur war, the OPEC countries halted oil shipments to the United States and other countries that supported Israel. Soon, gasoline stations here were running on empty, with long lines of customers waiting for their turn at the pumps.

In many places, officials instituted "odd-even" rationing systems where motorists with odd numbered license plates could buy gasoline only on odd numbered days and those with even numbered plates could buy only on even numbered days. The crisis spurred calls for conservation, with the Nixon administration pushing the slogan, "don't be fuelish." Congress enacted a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour. By the time the embargo was over, the price of a barrel of Saudi crude had quadrupled, from $2.41 to $10.73; and gasoline, which had sold for an average price of 38.5 cents a gallon before the embargo, was headed toward the dollar-a-gallon mark.

Now, 33 years later, we hear many of the same things we heard back then:  we're too dependent on foreign supplies of crude oil, we need to conserve more, we need to drive more efficient automobiles, we need to find alternate sources of renewable energy. But those warnings I first heard in Houston in 1973 have gone largely ignored. 

Today, the U.S. is more dependent on foreign oil than it was in 1973--importing up to 60% of its supply, most of it from volatile places like the Middle East, Venezuela and Nigeria.  We have not broken our addiction to foreign oil, something that leaves us highly vulnerable to future supply interruptions.  And like most addicts, we continue living in denial.

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