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1973 oil crisis - Search for alternatives

1973 oil crisis - Search for alternatives: Encyclopedia II - 1973 oil crisis - Search for alternatives

The energy crisis led to greater interest in renewable energy, especially wood fuel and spurred research in solar power and wind power. It also led to greater pressure to exploit North American oil sources, and increased the West's dependence on coal and nuclear power. In Australia, heating oil ceased being considered an appropriate winter heating fuel. This often meant that a lot of oil-fired room heaters that were popular from the late-1950s to the early-1970s were considered outdated. It also meant that some enterprising individuals designed aftermarket gas-conversi ...

1973 oil crisis, 1973 oil crisis - Arab oil embargo, 1973 oil crisis - Chronology, 1973 oil crisis - Conservation and reduction in demand, 1973 oil crisis - Decline of OPEC, 1973 oil crisis - Effects on international relations, 1973 oil crisis - Founding of OPEC, 1973 oil crisis - Immediate economic impact of the embargo, 1973 oil crisis - Macroeconomic effects, 1973 oil crisis - Notes and references, 1973 oil crisis - Origins of the 1973 world oil shock, 1973 oil crisis - Perception of the oil industry, 1973 oil crisis - Price controls and rationing, 1973 oil crisis - Search for alternatives, 1973 oil crisis - The Yom Kippur War, 1973 oil crisis - World competition over resources, Energy crisis, Supply shock, Oil boom, 1979 energy crisis, Oil price increases of 2004, Hubbert peak theory, Boycott, Embargo

1973 oil crisis: Encyclopedia II - 1973 oil crisis - Search for alternatives

1973 oil crisis - Search for alternatives

In Australia, heating oil ceased being considered an appropriate winter heating fuel. This often meant that a lot of oil-fired room heaters that were popular from the late-1950s to the early-1970s were considered outdated. It also meant that some enterprising individuals designed aftermarket gas-conversion kits that let these heaters burn natural gas or propane.

But the initial moves toward more efficient automobiles and alternative sources of energy stalled as oil prices fell and memories of gasoline shortages of 1973 faded.

For the handful of industrialized nations that were net energy exporters the effects of the oil crisis were very different. In Canada the industrial east suffered many of the same problems of the United States. In oil rich Alberta there was a sudden and massive influx of money that quickly made it the richest province in the country. The federal government attempted to correct this imbalance through the creation of the government-owned Petro-Canada and later the National Energy Program. These efforts produced a great deal of anger in the west producing a sentiment of alienation that has remained a central element of Canadian politics to this day. Overall the oil embargo had a sharply negative effect on the Canadian economy. The economic malaise in the United States easily crossed the border and increases in unemployment and stagflation hit Canada as hard as the United States despite Canadian fuel reserves.

The Soviet Union was also a net oil exporter and the increase in the price of oil had an immediate effect on that country. The Soviet economy had stagnated for several years and the increase in the price of oil had a beneficial effect, especially after the bloc's internal terms of trade were adjusted to reflect the increased value of Russian oil. The increase in foreign currency reserves allowed the import of grain and other foodstuffs from abroad, increased production of consumer goods and the ability to keep military spending at its traditional levels. Some historians believe the windfall in oil revenues during this period kept the Soviet Union in existence for a considerably longer period of time than would otherwise have occurred.