'Oil Crisis' was a term invented in
1973 when
Arab nations cut oil supplies in response to
support for Isreal. During the
Carter administration the term
energy crisis was heard more often in the United States. President Carter supported conservation and alternative energy sources among other solutions. This latter
crisis was revived by the
George W. Bush administration, though not with the intent of
decreasing reliance on fossil fuels, but of
increasing domestic supply of fossil fuels.
The term is usually used to refer to temporary shortages, rather than the fact that the total supply available is limited, and that even that cannot be used without facing the imperfectly understood dangers of global warming.