<P> One of the first challenges OPEC faced in the 1970s was the United States' unilaterally pulling out of the Bretton Woods Accord and taking the U.S. off the established Gold Exchange Standard in 1971 . With that standard, only the value of the U.S. dollar was pegged to the price of gold and all other currencies were pegged to the U.S. dollar . The change resulted in instability in world currencies and depreciation of the value of the U.S. dollar, as well as other currencies, and decreasing real revenues for OPEC whose producers still priced oil in dollars . </P> <P> OPEC was slow to adjust to the situation but finally made the decision to price oil against gold . Frustrated negotiations between OPEC and the major oil companies to revise the oil price agreement as well as the ongoing Middle East conflicts continued to stall OPEC's efforts at stabilization through this era . </P> <P> The major oil - producing regions of the U.S.--Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Colorado, Wyoming, and Alaska--benefited greatly from the price inflation of the 1970s as did the U.S. oil industry in general . Oil prices generally increased throughout the decade; between 1978 and 1980 the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil increased 250 percent . Though all states felt the effects of the stock market crash and related national economic problems, the economic benefits of increased oil revenue in the Oil Patch states generally offset much of this . </P>

What was primarily responsible for the american gasoline shortage in the 1970s