Project Independence was an initiative announced by U.S. President Richard Nixon on November 7, 1973,[1] in reaction to the OAPEC oil embargo and the resulting 1973 oil crisis. Recalling the Manhattan Project, he stated that the goal of Project Independence was to achieve energy self-sufficiency for the United States by 1980,[2] through a national commitment to energy conservation and development of alternative sources of energy. [3] Nixon declared that American science, technology and industry could free America from its dependence on imported oil,[4] and establish its energy independence.
Some of the important initiatives to emerge from Project Independence included lowering highway speeds to 55 mph (89 km/h), converting oil power plants to coal, completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and diverting federal funds from highway construction to mass transit.[3]
Despite these initiatives, Project Independence failed to prevent the increase in American oil consumption after the 1973–74 embargo; its dependence on foreign suppliers rose from 36% to almost 50% in 1979,[5] when questions of nuclear energy safety arose domestically, and the next energy crisis emerged overseas.
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