Line-up of cars waiting to fill their tanks during a gas shortage, Darien, Connecticut, 1979. The 1970s energy crisis was a period in which the economies of the major industrial countries of the world, particularly the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand were heavily affected and faced substantial petroleum shortages, real and perceived, as well as elevated prices. The two worst crises of this period were the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis, caused by interruptions in exports from the Middle East, for example in 1979 due to the Iranian Revolution.