The '70s oil crises
Yesterday I mentioned that a car met the goal in the Vetter Fuel Challenge. This 100 mpg car is the MAX, a very small diesel car created by Jack McCornack. I was skimming his development blog and saw a good summary of the 1970s oil crises:
Back in the '70s, we experienced what I've been snidely calling the Energy Crisis Lite. A small group of oil suppliers stopped selling us their stuff, and we went into such a panic that we even started buying fuel-efficient cars. Then those suppliers decided our money was as green as anybody else's, so they resumed selling us all the oil we wanted.