The first fifteen years of the 20th century marked the beginning of America’s infatuation with the automobile. But by 1920, there was an issue. There wasn’t enough gasoline being produced to keep up with the incredible demand generated by so many new drivers.
The problem was particularly acute for the Pacific Coast states. In California companies like Standard Oil sounded the alarm. The company had determined that there would have to be cuts made to consumption. Standard Oil prioritized fuel for industry and agriculture and warned that sales of gasoline for “pleasure purposes” were going to be diminished. Drivers were frustrated and rumors circulated. Standard Oil was accused of capping wells and exporting petroleum products to rake in exorbitant profits instead of meeting domestic demand.
Oil companies counseled drivers to adopt “old style thrift”. Government authorities noted “the use of gasoline to serve our pleasure cannot go unchecked – the joy-ride is not the kind of ‘pursuit of happiness’ regarded as an ‘inalienable right’ by our Revolutionary forefathers.” Some drivers went back to using horse and buggy for transportation.
Learn more about the 1920 “West Coast Gasoline Famine” in the Charles William Burdick Family papers at UW’s American Heritage Center