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Title: The impact of the Persian Gulf crisis on household energy consumption and expenditure patterns

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:10184151
 [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Univ. of Baltimore, MD (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)

The Iraqi invasion of the Kingdom of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and the subsequent war between Iraq and an international alliance led by the United States triggered first immediate and then fluctuating world petroleum prices. Increases in petroleum prices and in U.S. petroleum imports resulted in increases in the petroleum prices paid by U.S. residential, commercial, and industrial consumers. The result was an immediate price shock that reverberated throughout the U.S. economy. The differential impact of these price increases and fluctuations on poor and minority households raised immediate, significant, and potentially long-term research, policy, and management issues for a variety of federal, state, and local government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Among these issues are (1) the measurement of variations in the impact of petroleum price changes on poor, nonpoor, minority, and majority households; (2) how to use the existing policy resources and policy innovation to mitigate regressive impacts of petroleum price increases on lower-income households; and (3) how to pursue such policy mitigation through government agencies severely circumscribed by tax and expenditure limitations. Few models attempt to assess household energy consumption and energy expenditure under various alternative price scenarios and with respect to the inclusion of differential household choices correlated with such variables as race, ethnicity, income, and geographic location. This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the nature and extent of potential impacts of petroleum price changes attributable to the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath on majority, black, and Hispanic households and on overlapping poor and nonpoor households. At the time this was written, the Persian Gulf War had concluded with Iraq`s total surrender to all of the resolutions and demands of the United Nations and United States.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
10184151
Report Number(s):
ANL/ES/PP-75490; ON: DE94019289; TRN: 94:008606
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: [1994]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English