Spend taxes.

Response to a crisis in oil prices and production

Never create a new permanent department because of a temporary and manufactured crisis

The 1973 oil crisis called attention to the need to consolidate energy policy.[13][14][15] On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 95–91, 91 Stat. 565, enacted August 4, 1977), which created the Department of Energy.

President Carter created the Department of Energy with the goal of promoting energy conservation and developing alternative sources of energy. He wanted to not be dependent on foreign oil and reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Remember, there is no such thing as a "low energy, rich country".

https://m.stacker.news/17516

Energy = Civilization. Don't let the commies convince you otherwise.

Anyone else find it strange that energy usage stopped growing in America almost right after the establishment of the Department of Energy?

It's about as strange as all the wars we got into after establishing the Defense Department. There was less fighting when it was called the War Department—ironic!

Abstract (2014)Abstract (2014)

Prior to the 1970s energy crises, electricity sales in the United States were growing by more than 5% per year, and as recently as the early 1990s, electricity sales were growing more than 2% per year. In the past few years, growth has essentially stopped: retail electricity sales in 2012 were 1.9% lower than sales in 2007, the peak year. Some observers have attributed this stalled growth to the 2008 economic recession, while others have suggested a variety of other factors. In this paper, we undertake several analyses to consider which factors best explain changes in electricity use in recent years. Our hypothesis is that the recession alone cannot explain the recent stagnation in electricity consumption. We instead hypothesize that electricity savings from energy efficiency programs and from other efficiency efforts such as appliance standards and building codes are having a broad national impact on electricity consumption in the United States, possibly contributing significantly to the recent decline in electricity consumption.

https://www.aceee.org/files/pdf/white-paper/low-electricity-use.pdf

Number go Sideways

It has a podcast.