Historians: It turns out that Carter was right after all.
If we had followed Jimmy Carter's lead we would have been energy independent today and would have avoided two massively costly and illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 9/11 would have never happened along with the plethora of constitution burning actions like the Patriot Act, the TSA, the Department of Homeland Security and the NSA spying program that Bush brought us.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2009/05/about-that-energy-independence-president-carter/17610/
Since 1973 the US has met 75 % of our new energy needs through energy efficiency, a profound change in economic productivity that has saved us money, pollution, and avoided environmental and political risk. He also ushered in a period of oil conservation that basically knocked the knees out of OPEC's oil prices from the early 80's to the late 90's, though another force keeping the oil prices low was the evolution of the international oil market. If we put presidential faces on household objects the way we put them on coins, we'd have Jimmy on our gas caps. Still, every president avoids doing what he did because they don't want "to end up like Jimmy Carter."
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/52030
It turns out that Carter was right after all.
He was right in seeking to raise the fleet auto mileage standard to 48 miles per gallon by 1995. (Even U.S. automakers admitted at the time that they could easily achieve 30 mph by 1985.)
Jimmy Carter was right in exhorting Americans to turn down their thermostats, even if he did look nerdy in a cardigan while urging us to do so.
In his July 1979 speech, he was right when he said, “I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 — never.” That worthy goal quickly went by the board.
He was right to encourage fuel conservation by proposing a 50-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline and a fee on imported oil — in effect, a floor for fuel prices.
Invoking the pioneering spirit of the 1960s’ moon mission, he was right to recommend a tax on windfall oil profits to finance a crash program to develop affordable synthetic fuels.
Jimmy Carter was correct, too, in setting a goal of obtaining 20 percent of our energy from solar power by the year 2000.
We balked, and his energy program, which was new and demanding, shriveled up and died. When oil prices began declining in the 1980s, the justification for change vanished altogether. The Reagan administration junked the proposed 1995 mileage standard and the rest of the Carter agenda.