Enter Reagan, a free marketeer and avowed opponent of "utopian schemers." On July 17, 1980, as he accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination, he declared, "Those who preside over the worst energy shortage in our history tell us to use less, so that we will run out of oil, gasoline and natural gas a little more slowly." The Gipper continued, "Well, now, conservation is desirable ... But conservation is not the sole answer to our energy needs. America must get to work producing more energy." Reagan's idea was to liberate the oil companies from controls, as part of his belief in "getting government off our backs." In my role as a low-level staffer on his campaign, I cheered those libertarian words. 

James P. Pinkerton