This is an excellent overview of how the US government responded to the shortages of natural gas and petroleum in the 1970s. It provides an overview of each industry (as they existed "pre-restructuring"), a review of the basic statutory framework within which the government agencies tasked with allocating the shortages had to work, and then a review of how the principal agencies evolved policies for rationing supply.

The work does not address the question of how the industry could have been strucutred and regulated differently to eliminate the shortages -- the task that fell to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a decade later. Still, it is a very useful resource for anyone seeking an historical perspective on the energy shortages of the 1970s.