3 Energy Crisis: Electricity Becomes an Increasing-Cost Industry

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was formed in 1960. The Yom Kippur War, initiated by Egypt's attack against Israel in October 1973, set the stage for OPEC's Arab members to embargo oil exports to the United States and a few European countries. The results were a fourfold increase in world oil prices, up to about $12 per barrel, and long lines at gasoline service stations in America. The United States economy entered a serious recession coupled with high inflation, dubbed “stagflation.”