Department of Energy, U.S.

Cabinet department created in 1977 to focus on governmental authority and responsibility for energy programs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States was a growing industrial power that was consuming ever-larger amounts of energy every year. The introduction of cheap, mass-produced automobiles in the 1920s further increased the nation's appetite for energy. During World War I and especially World War II, national energy resources were diverted to wartime efforts. In World War II, gas was rationed in the United States and American automakers suspended the manufacture of passenger cars to produce tanks, trucks, and other military vehicles.

The end of World War II released a huge pent-up demand for energy in the United States. Car sales skyrocketed as millions of soldiers returned home, gas rationing ended, and automakers reentered the civilian car market. The rise of car ownership and a postwar economic boom dramatically increased U.S. energy needs—needs that the nation could not supply domestically. By the late 1960s, the United States was importing most of the oil it needed to keep its economy running.

The supply and demand for oil collided in the 1970s when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a group of the major oil-producing nations, placed an embargo on the sale of oil to the United States. The embargo was largely in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The embargo resulted in huge energy shortages in the United States, sending gas prices sky high and bringing a return to limited gas rationing.

Lack of coordinated energy planning and organization clearly contributed to the ineffective U.S. response to the embargo. Although the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford had identified the need to better coordinate energy policies, neither developed any concrete plans. When the United States was hit by a natural-gas shortage in 1977, the energy issue came to the fore as an immediate concern. Then-president Jimmy Carter worked intensely to address this most pressing issue, crafting a National Energy Plan that proposed significant changes to strengthen energy coordination in the United States. Among the most important proposals was the establishment of the Department of Energy to bring all relevant energy programs under one large umbrella organization.

In June 1977, Congress passed legislation to establish the Department of Energy (DOE). President Carter selected James R. Schlesinger, a former director of Central Intelligence and secretary of defense, as the first secretary of energy. Secretary Schlesinger was charged with bringing all federal bodies dealing with matters related to energy—some 20,000 employees and a budget of $10.4 billion—under the unified guidance of the Department of Energy.

By 2004, the Department of Energy had an overall budget of $23 billion and employed more than 100,000 government and contracted personnel. The DOE is divided into two main departments—the Office of Nuclear Security and the Office of Energy, Science and Environment. The undersecretary for nuclear security holds a dual title, as he or she also is administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration. This office is responsible for maintenance of all U.S. nuclear-weapons stockpiles, international NonProliferation efforts, and oversight of all nuclear laboratories in the United States.

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