Introduction 1

1 Introduction

The policy imperative

At the time of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo, the only U.S. government agency related to energy was the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).1,2 In response to the OPEC oil embargo, President Nixon launched Project Independence on November 7, 1973; the goal of the project was to achieve energy independence by 1980. In his State of the Union Address on January 30, 1974, President Nixon remarked (Nixon, 1974):

Let it be our national goal: At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving.

Others at that time also editorialized about the importance of the oil embargo on the future direction of U.S. energy policy (Dooley 2008, p. 9):

The [OPEC] Oil Embargo which began on October 19, 1973 sparked a fundamental reassessment of the nation’s vulnerability to imported energy and also forced a reassessment of the role that energy R&D could play in helping secure the nation against hostile acts like the Oil Embargo.

The United States’ heightened interest in alternative energy sources led in 1975 to replacement of the AEC by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) in an effort to unify the federal government’s energy R&D activities. Congress charged ERDA to sponsor research and development (R&D) related to electric and hybrid vehicles through the passage of the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1976, Public Law 94-413. Therein:3

The Congress finds and declares that:

1 the Nation’s dependence on foreign sources of petroleum must be reduced, as such dependence jeopardizes national security, inhibits foreign policy, and undermines economic well-being;