This is the site of Pueblo Depot Activity.
It's best known as a long time repository of US chemical weapons.
It's closing.
They are 89% of the way there to destroy all the chemical weapons.
But in the 1980s, there was another stockpile here.
No, not gas.
Coupons, gas rationing coupons.
5 billion of them.
They were about to be destroyed because they were never used.
And if they got out, people were worried they'd confuse dollar change machines.
People saved a few and today you can find them on eBay.
But even though these coupons are an historical relic, they hinted how gas rationing might
actually work.
"If it happens in the United States, again, the world's known reserves of oil are likely
to run out."
"We're gonna keep it, hoard it."
"And they are going to talk about the problem, right?"
I have a full glass of oil.
Just kidding.
I don't have the budget for that.
So Federal gas rationing: Is it gonna happen?
I don't know.
I mean, we're definitely not having orange mocha frappuccino parties anymore.
"Orange mocha frappuccino!"
But gas prices have come down since I first conceived of this video, hopefully that continues.
But in Europe they are doing a version of it.
And as you'll see in this video, I think that, in a shortage, a gas ration is still the most
likely solution.
I'm gonna give you an idea about what has happened already in the United States.
A look at the shelved plan that's probably a pretty likely template for what would happen
if rationing became necessary again.
And finally, at least hopefully, what it all means.
During World War II, there were a range of state and federal rationing systems.
The Office of Price Administration ran this program.
Steps included asking for a gasoline ration book and then checking a sticker.
Here is comedian Gracie Allen in a 1942 radio show giving an uncharacteristically serious
monologue: "But after all, what's an inconvenience when
we weigh it against possible outcomes.
Remember rationing still provides essential gasoline for essential driving."
Stickers like these were given according to the car's purpose.
This is an A sticker, the most common, what everybody got, uh, typically around four gallons
a week though, that varied, they were distributed centrally.
It really changed traffic.
Here's New York city traffic before and after World War II.
And here are cars going into storage.
Really big gas lines were common and so were black markets.
It is also hard to get a clear read on exactly how effective this was.
I read some articles that said that it didn't do much to really curb gas consumption, but
I read others that said it was kind of effective.
Everybody sort of agreed that a huge black market was created.
These are actually pictures of some of the hearings for people who violated pleasure
riding regulations during the war.
And this article was all about how they had to keep an official ration level, low to compensate
for a huge black market, but then, you know, the war ended.
And so did rationing.
The next big crisis was the energy crisis in the early seventies.
And it's the one that birthed those coupons that I showed at the beginning of the video.
The crisis ended up being behind a lower highway speed, certain fuel economy standards, and
many hodgepodge statewide attempts at rationing.
One method was odd, even rationing in which odd numbered license plates got gas.
One day even numbered plates got another.
This was used in 1979.
This guy is well, you'll see.
"What about the dropping the odd even gas?"
"Go ahead.
What why?
I don't know nothing about it.
I didn't know.
They did drop it.
When did they drop it?"
"They dropped it yesterday.
It's effective today."
"Oh, really?
I didn't know that.
What is the odd or even, uh, odd.
Is it great?
HAHAHHAHA."
Did odd even rationing work?
Eh, probably not.
Um, I read some papers that said that it was sort of dubious whether it actually reduced
gasoline consumption or not.
So in preparation of another bigger energy crisis, they printed the coupons.
Nixon used the Federal Energy Office to print the coupons.
When the oil embargo ended, they put the coupons in Pueblo to later be destroyed.
Then in 1975, Congress said the president had to make up a real plan for them to pass
in the future, which he, or she could then implement in an emergency.
So we actually have a plan that was passed, but there wasn't a big energy emergency before
the plan expired.
But I think looking at plans is a useful way to guess at what a contemporary plan for gas
rationing would be like.
Here's what it isn't: price controls or big taxes.
Consumers hated both of those options, probably because they thought they were unfair.
And so rationing is likely to be the solution in a future crisis.
Let's break this down.
They guess how much gas there is.
Some goes to a national reserve.
Then they split it to the state based on gas usage.
This is to avoid rural/urban imbalances.
Then states give it out based on vehicle registration.
Motorcycles and mopeds got less, uh, despite being more fuel efficient.
Priority activities got more — think healthcare, mail services, the newspaper delivery— that
one might be updated for the modern era.
And you basically got your ration allotment, which you could then use to sell on a white
market.
Uh, this is to eliminate that World War II black market problem.
There was a plan to have some weirder stuff like a gas rationing bank account that you
could open.
You know, there's 128 pages here, but that is basically it.
And it's not that different from what Gracie Allen asked for back in World War II.
Here's the Pueblo again.
Most of those coupons are long gone except for eBay.
And the 1980 plan?
It expired.
Gas rationing is not really on the horizon today.
So why bother telling this story?
Well, first it could come back.
It's possible to imagine a world in which gas is in such short supply, that they've
gotta implement some sort of rationing, and this is how it might work.
But I'd like you to indulge a little, little digression.
Do you remember the app that came out that was supposed to allow you to track COVID 19
exposure and tests on your phone?
And then communicate it to other phones?
I was so excited when this thing came out, I was like, sweet.
We did it.
It's over now.
We've cracked the case.
This is gonna solve it.
Okay.
End of the pandemic.
Except it wasn't.
I think the app shows us that anyone hoping for something more sophisticated when it comes
to gas rationing— blockchain gas rations!
— well, they're gonna be disappointed.
I think that the rationing plans show some good solutions, but it's gonna be painful.
I mean, you saw the long lines, you heard laughing guy.
There's some, there's some pain in that laughter.
"HAHAHAHA" Looking at history, you can see just how difficult
a true fuel shortage would be and how hard it would be to ration an energy source like
that.
Any crisis like this, it's a tremendous waste, like billions of coupons in the desert waiting
to be destroyed.
"HAHAHAHAH."
Cheers.
It's, uh, Diet Vanilla Coke.
Very good.
By the way, not sponsored.
This is a personal channel where I do personal videos, history, videos, stuff like that.
Uh, I'd love to know in the comments, if you think that the gas rationing plans would be
different from the ones that I mentioned.
I found some stuff from the seventies that said they were thinking about using credit
cards, but they thought it was too hard.
I kind of think that would still be the case today, but if you disagree, let me know.
Uh, it really helps this channel out.
If you do drop a comment or if you subscribe, uh, I try to do more videos like these, that
look at history and kind of how things really work, stuff like that.
Yeah.
Thanks for watching.
And I will see you in the next one.
All right, bye.