Actually, the high gas prices in the seventies did spark a wave of R&D. Several high efficiency experimental designs were developed because of the price of gas. My dad was able a 4x4 Ford truck in 1974 for about 60% of the sticker price because car manufacturers and lots couldn't shift large, inefficient vehicles (He was going to Alaska and thought he needed that type of vehicle, his next car was a SAAB sedan. We all learn as we grow). However, there wasn't really a gas shortage in the 1970's, there was a monopoly on oil production. OPEC tightened down the valves and gas prices sky rocketed. Right after that though, in the eighties the price of gas dropped to extremely low prices. Partly as a result of increased production from OPEC and partly a result of increased exploration. It wasn't too long after that that prices dropped almost to ten dollars a barrel. The American public (which has been through this sort of boom bust cycle in the oil industry several times) blew off the warnings of potential problems and went back to buying big cars and houses tens of miles from where they work. On another variable in the equation, food prices are artificially low because of the way US farm policy and support shifted in the seventies. The cost of food is so far hidden that the average consumer doesn't realize how expensive their food actually is in terms of subsidies and collateral damage. The price corn is sold at is typically about a dollar less then the cost of production, with the difference being made up in the form of government subsidies. The result is that people have become used to exceptional levels of energy and food plenty and normalcy when it returns is going to burn.