Forty years ago, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries placed an embargo on petroleum, bringing an oil-addled world to its knees.
As oil prices quadrupled, the world panicked. In the immediate aftermath, gas stations closed on Sundays. Small, fuel-efficient cars became popular. The U.S. government initiated the first programs into developing solar power and electric vehicles.
And Brazil -- a developing country under military dictatorship at the time -- began the push for what has become the most successful biofuel industry in the world.
Brazil relied on imported oil in the 1970s, and about 80 percent of the petroleum consumed was imported, said Alfred Szwarc, an emissions and technology consultant for the Brazilian ethanol trade group UNICA. In response to the embargo, the government pushed for a number of research and development programs. The most successful was the National Alcohol Program, or "Proalcool."
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