AMERICANS were urged yesterday to switch off lights, turn down their air-conditioning and drive more slowly to save energy. It was the start of a campaign to return to 1970s doctrines by the hitherto pro-consumption Bush Administration.

Samuel Bodman, the Energy Secretary, announced the drive in response to rising fuel prices as a result of recent hurricanes. To set an example, the White House was “pitching in” by switching off lights, adjusting air-conditioning, urging staff to cycle to work and by sending a Cabinet Secretary by train, rather than an aircraft, from Washington to New York.

Mr Bush, a former oil company owner who had never advocated conservation, provoked some scorn last week when he responded to alarm over rising prices with a call to drive less. By far the biggest topic in the US over the weekend was the pain of paying up to $100 (£57) to fill petrol tanks at $3 a gallon — unheard-of levels by American standards.

The Bush fuel conservation campaign has strong echoes of President Carter’s appeals to late 1970s America to turn down heating and drive slowly.

“President Bush has not yet been spotted in a Jimmy Carter-like grey cardigan, but otherwise his call to Americans to conserve gasoline by driving less . . . has a strangely familiar ring,” The New York Times said.

President Carter, a figure of derision for the Bush team, wore a cardigan in a televised address to show that he had turned down the White House heating. The victory of Ronald Reagan in 1980 reflected the backlash against the frugal, “less is more” Carter years.

Mr Bodman, introducing his “Easy Ways to Save Energy” plan, said that Americans face a “particularly acute” need to save energy after disruptions by the hurricanes Katrina and Rita tightened supplies. More than a quarter of US oil production and nearly a fifth of its refining capacity is still out of action.

Unchecked, US energy consumption is expected to grow by 20 per cent in the next 15 years and oil markets are not expected to be able to sustain such growth. “A few easy, sensible steps that all of us can take . . . can add up to tremendous savings,” Mr Bodman said. The save-fuel campaign is led by a comic pig villain called Energy Hog, who can suck the energy out of your home faster than you can say: “Why did the lights go out, Mom?”

Mr Bush has ordered federal employees to curb their travel and encouraged them to use public transport. Bicycle racks are being installed in the parking bay of the White House.

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