Remember the “sweater speech?”
On April 18, 1977, President Jimmy Carter made a televised speech to the nation on the subject of the energy crisis. Hoping to appear informal and recall Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s radio addresses that became known as “fireside chats,” the president sat in an armchair beside a fireplace where a small fire burned. Mr. Carter wore a cardigan sweater, suggesting that to conserve fuel he had turned down the thermostat in the White House.
He made a big deal of creating the Dept. of Energy as a cabinet level position. Of course the DOE does not oversee energy production or use. Never has or will.