U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Vehicle Technologies Program

Fact #179: August 20, 2001
The Costs of Oil Dependence

Major oil price shocks have disrupted world energy markets four times in the past 30 years (1973-1974, 1979-1980, 1990-1991, and 1999-2000). Each of the first three shocks was followed by an economic recession in the United States.

In the report Costs of Oil Dependence: A 2000 Update, Greene and Tishchishyna indicate that the oil market upheavals caused by the OPEC cartel during the past 30 years have cost the United States about $7 trillion (present value 1998 dollars) in total economic costs, about the same as the total payments on the national debt during the same period.

Graph showing oil prices and economic growth

*First 2 quarters of 2001

Supporting Information

Year Gross Domestic
Product Growth		 Oil Price
(1999 $ per barrel)
1970 0.18% 12.26
1971 3.35% 12.36
1972 5.43% 11.79
1973 5.77% 12.94
1974 -2.77% 25.95
1975 1.88% 27.17
1976 5.57% 26.97
1977 4.64% 27.84
1978 5.51% 27.06
1979 3.18% 35.53
1980 -0.23% 51.56
1981 2.45% 59.20
1982 -2.03% 50.40
1983 4.33% 44.10
1984 7.27% 41.99
1985 3.85% 38.03
1986 3.42% 20.24
1987 3.40% 24.17
1988 4.17% 19.16
1989 3.51% 22.61
1990 1.76% 26.90
1991 -0.47% 22.27
1992 3.05% 21.03
1993 2.65% 18.28
1994 4.04% 17.01
1995 2.67% 18.40
1996 3.57% 21.70
1997 4.24% 19.57
1998 4.31% 12.72
1999 4.47% 17.49
2000 4.99% 27.66
2001* 1.00% 24.23

*First two quarters of 2001
Source: Greene, D.L. and N.I. Tishchishyna, Costs of Oil Dependence: A 2000 Update, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL/TM-2000/152, Oak Ridge, TN, 2000, and data updates.

Return to Favorite Facts of the Week