The only good reason would be that we were running out of oil.
Visiting the Way Back Machine, I had to take a half-semester course in college called World Energy Resources. It was mandated by New York State for all SUNY/CUNY colleges. Professor Doom was adamant that we would be bone-dry out of oil by 1990, and as we were entering a new 'climate ice age' we would all starve/freeze to death. Kind of made my C in Language class seem comparatively irrelevant.
