Oil

I remember the energy crisis when I was eleven.  In the local newspaper some utility published tips on how to save energy, and they ended it with "P.S.:  You'll save money too!" I remember there were long lineups at gas stations, but that was really due to hysteria:  people thought that gas was about to run out and wanted to hoard.

I also remember seeing a skit on The Carol Burnett Show about a couple of old folks waiting in a gas line.  At the end the husband said to the wife, "Do you still know how to pucker?...  Maybe you could siphon the gas!" (That show had some good writers.)

In the long term, if you ask me, the energy crisis was the best thing that ever happened to the developed world.  We got serious about reducing fuel consumption, if only for a while.  In 1974 the U.S. Congress considered rationing gasoline, and was actually serious enough to start printing ration cards, though the White House resisted successfully.

It's a shame that the lessons of the energy crisis got unlearned during the 1980s! (A whole lot went wrong under Ronald Reagan's presidency.) Today climate change has become too serious to ignore because we let fuel waste and inefficiency return.  Our grandchildren are likely to pay a heavy price.