Mark Woods: How do you like gas prices now? Better than 50 years ago.

The other day, when I was filling up my car, I noticed the bumper sticker on the truck in front of me.

“How do you like gas prices now?”

It reminded me of a note I had put in my phone at the start of the year, a possible story for the first week of February.

Fifty years ago, February 1974, gas rationing in Florida.

If we think gas prices are high now, we’re not just forgetting that they were higher a decade ago. We’re forgetting what it was like five decades ago, when not only was the inflation-adjusted price higher than today, but gas shortages led to drastic measures.

In the first week of February 1974, there were headlines that said things like: “Jacksonville Adopts Gas Rationing Plan.”

Not that I remember this. I do remember some of the gas lines at the end of the 1970s, the ones that people often recall with Jimmy Carter’s presidency. But I don’t think I realized to what degree this was an issue in 1974 — two years before Carter was elected, in the waning months of Richard Nixon’s time in office.

That’s probably because, even though I was alive in 1974, I was still a few years away from being able to take out the AMC Rambler on a Friday night, contingent on bringing it home with the tank at the same level. That’ll make a teenager pay attention to gas prices.

I ended up taking a trip back to the news of 1974 when, at the start of 2024, I was doing a little annual exercise, trying to figure out what was happening in our city and state at different times in the past — 10 years ago, 50 years ago, etc.

I expected to find 1974 headlines about Nixon and Watergate. And there were. But many headlines reflected the results of a February 2024 poll that asked Americans: What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?

Corruption in government registered in single digits. The No. 1 answer by a wide margin was “energy crisis-fuel shortage.”

Gas lines, rationing and siphoning

The big issue of 1974 could be traced back to what happened on October 18, 1973. In response to the United States’ support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War, the Arab nations of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) stopped the flow of oil to America.

The price of gas in the United States rose, going from 39 cents a gallon in 1973 to more than 50 cents — or about $3.50 in today's dollars.

Not that being willing to pay automatically meant you could fill up. Stations had long lines. Some ran out of gas. Theft of gas, siphoned out of parked cars, became a problem.

At the start of 1974, President Nixon signed a law lowering all national highway speeds to 55 mph. And the Federal Energy Office developed a plan for rationing. Each driver who was at least 18 years old would be mailed a card that could be used to get coupons, allowing the driver to buy an average of 32 to 35 gallons of gas a month. There would be a charge of $1 for each monthly pack of coupons to help cover the estimated $1.4 billion annual cost of running the program.

While this national rationing never happened — a few of the nearly 5 billion unused coupons now are in a Smithsonian vault — the states most affected by shortages, like Florida, took steps on their own.

In the first week in February 1974, United Press International reported gas rationing had become a reality in six “fuel-starved” Florida counties.

“Jacksonville, which bills itself as the tourist ‘gateway’ to Florida, voted Wednesday to adopt the ‘Oregon plan’ of limiting gas sales to odd and even numbered days corresponding to the last digit of auto license plates,” a story said.

The vote by Jacksonville officials meant Duval County joined Dade, Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties with voluntary rationing. And it came the day after Sarasota County imposed what UPI said might be a first for the nation in 1974 — mandatory rationing.

By mid-February, Florida Gov. Reubin Askew was calling for voluntary gas rationing across the state, urging that sales be limited to 10 gallons a customer, and asking customers only to buy gas if they were under half a tank.

Some service stations began requiring motorists to spend extra money — on things like car washes and oil changes — to be able to buy gas. After receiving a flood of complaints from citizens, the Florida attorney general threatened to take the service stations to court if they didn’t stop.

Rationing was hardly just a Florida thing. Newspapers included roundups from around the country.  In West Virginia, about 15,000 coal miners avoided waiting in lines at the pumps by staying home for three days in a row. In California, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan declared voluntary rationing on a county basis. In Hawaii, with compulsory rationing, motorists found no lines and stations open past normal hours.

A law requiring rationing?

Amid all of this, a poll of Americans asked the question: Do you favor or oppose a law requiring gas rationing?

The results: 53 percent opposed, 37 percent favored, 10 percent had no opinion.

Fifty years later, I find this almost as hard to fathom as the gas rationing itself.

Imagine the reaction today if any leader, for any reason, suggested a law requiring gas rationing. People would blow their head gaskets. And not just 53 percent.

We’re obsessed with gas prices. That’s partly because we’re more aware of what we pay for gas than other products. We see the price in giant numbers. We watch the tally on the pump as we fill our tanks.

This isn’t to say the price of gas doesn’t matter. It does. It affects individual budgets and macroeconomics. But so many other expenses, from health care to housing, have risen much more dramatically.

And not only do we pay inordinate attention to gas prices, we tend to give presidents too much credit or blame. Rising numbers at the pumps played a role in the downfall of Nixon and the one-term presidency of Carter.

When Carter took office in the late 1970s, he pushed for energy efficiency and a shift from foreign oil to other sources. He had solar panels installed on the White House. He put on a cardigan sweater, sat in front of a fireplace and gave a speech where he talked about government actions and individual sacrifices, like adjusting thermostats to collectively save energy.

Americans mocked such talk. Alternative energy? Conservation? Personal sacrifice? When Ronald Reagan became president, he took down the solar panels at the White House. And we kept guzzling gas.

In 2008, the average price of gas in America topped $4 a gallon for the first time. A decade ago, in 2014, it was above $3.50. And five decades ago, even if you had $3.50 in your pocket, you might not have been able to buy a drop.

So how do you like gas prices now?

One answer: Better than in 1974.

mwoods@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4212

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Gas rationing in Florida 50 years ago in 1974