Inventing in a Crisis: Lighting the United States after the 1973 Oil Embargo

Political events can shape innovations. The 1973 oil embargo pushed the U.S. lighting industry to develop energy-saving lamps and designs. It led to federal mandates for lighting efficiency standards. This article examines changes in lighting system technology during the 1970s and 1980s in their historical context and describes their effect on subsequent public policy. At first, manufacturers introduced novel devices for diverse markets, depending on how much new research was required and whether they expected public demand for efficiency to be temporary or structural. The industry's design practices experienced a contentious cultural shift, in which energy efficiency became the dominant concern rather than a low priority. Post-embargo decisions by producers, conveyors, and consumers combined to shift path dependencies in lighting. They shaped subsequent market and regulatory actions that fed revolutionary changes in lighting in the 2010s.