Could the Government Control the
Price?
Producing more and using
less are market-based approaches to independence. But is it possible
for the government to control the domestic price of oil directly, and
stop price shocks that way?
Price
Controls. In 1971, even before
the OPEC crisis, President Richard Nixon imposed a wage and price
freeze. The oil price controls on domestically produced oil lasted
until President Jimmy Carter announced on April 5, 1979:
Federal
Government price controls now hold down our own production and they
encourage waste and increasing dependence on foreign oil. ….
I’ve decided that phased decontrol of oil prices will begin on
June 1 and continue at a fairly uniform rate over the next 28 months.
Lower prices sounded good,
but they caused anti-conservation and decreased supply. Price
controls worked against the two forces that saved us from OPEC.
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