Can you imagine the gas prices during G1's run?
With the Decepticons hell-bent on draining all of Earth's resources, so many of our energy making supplies would be harder to come by, making for higher prices.
Many times we saw them using crude oil to create energon cubes. I imagine gas prices would get up to about $10 a gallon if the Autobots couldn't manage to stop them in time.
"They have a grill, it's this grill. Now you have it...it's called America."