The Federal Energy Administration (FEA) was a

United States government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

organization created in 1974 to address the

1970s energy crisis The 1970s energy crisis occurred when the Western world, particularly the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, faced substantial petroleum shortages as well as elevated prices. The two worst crises of this period wer ...

, and specifically the

1973 oil crisis In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after Eg ...

.Staff report (May 8, 1974). Energy Crisis Still With Us, Nixon Warns. ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' It was merged in 1977 with the

Energy Research and Development Administration The United States Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) was a United States government organization formed from the split of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1975. It assumed the functi ...

(ERDA) into the newly created

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

.Vietor, Richard H. K. (1987). ''Energy Policy in America Since 1945: A Study of Business-Government Relations.'' Cambridge University Press,

History

In 1973, the

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC ) is an organization enabling the co-operation of leading oil-producing and oil-dependent countries in order to collectively influence the global oil market and maximize Profit (eco ...

placed an oil embargo on nations perceived as assisting Israel in the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

. To combat the embargo, President Nixon established the Federal Energy Office (FEO) in December 1973, which was tasked with coordinating the American response to the embargo. In June 1974, the FEO was superseded by the FEA under the ''Federal Energy Administration Act'' of 1974 and . The FEA was tasked with managing fuel allocation, pricing regulation, and energy data collection and analysis. The

(ERDA) was created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and managed the energy

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

s, and

naval reactors Naval Reactors (NR), which administers the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, is an umbrella term for the U.S. government office that has comprehensive responsibility for the safe and reliable operation of the United States Navy's nuclear reactors ...

programs. In December 1975,

Energy Policy and Conservation Act The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA) () is a United States Act of Congress that responded to the 1973 oil crisis by creating a comprehensive approach to federal energy policy. The primary goals of EPCA are to increase energy p ...

directed the FEA to change petroleum pricing regulations such that

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring u ...

prices would rise gradually. Additionally, subject to congressional review, the FEA could now remove refined petroleum products from pricing controls. By June 1976,

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil (bunker fuel), marine f ...

, middle distillates,

naphtha Naphtha (, recorded as less common or nonstandard in all dictionaries: ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Generally, it is a fraction of crude oil, but it can also be produced from natural-gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and ...

, and gas oils were no longer under pricing controls. The Federal Energy Administration Act created the first U.S. agency with the primary focus on energy and mandated it to collect, assemble, evaluate, and analyze energy information. It also provided FEA with data collection enforcement authority for gathering data from energy producing and major consuming firms. Section 52 of the FEA Act mandated establishment of the National Energy Information System to "contain such energy information as is necessary to carry out the Administration’s statistical and forecasting activities." The Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 created the

(USDOE), which merged ERDA and FEA under USDOE. It also created the

Energy Information Administration The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and pub ...

as the primary Federal Government authority on energy statistics and analysis.Department of Energy, Announcement No. 1, September 28, 1977

Leaders

National Energy Office

Energy Policy Office

Federal Energy Office

Federal Energy Administration

Andrew Gibson was nominated to succeed Sawhill in 1974, but was withdrawn before the Senate had a chance to act on it.

Deputy Administrators

* John Sawhill (December 4, 1973 – April 17, 1974) * Eric Zausner (December 18, 1974 – Designated Acting July 31, 1976) * John Hill (Early 1975 – July 1976) * David Bardin (May 1977 – September 30, 1977) * Gorman Smith, Acting (February 1977 – June 1977)

References

External links

General Records of the Department of Energy
via United States National Archives
The Federal Energy Administration
a history of the FEA from the

* Historic technical reports from the Federal Energy Administration (and other Federal agencies) are available in th
Technical Report Archive and Image Library (TRAIL)
{{authority control Energy in the United States United States Department of Energy