What did the governments do in the West during the 1970's oil shocks ?

Nixon put price controls on oil.

Later, the DoE started allocating (i.e. rationing) gas to gas stations.

Reagan abolished these by executive order as one of his first acts as President:

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/29/us/president-abolishes-la...

and the gas lines disappeared overnight and never returned.

Thanks for the reference, albeit paywalled - was the disparition of gas lines an immediate consequence of the order, or did it just potentially prevent future gas lines ?

It was immediate. I remember it.

I'm surprised it isn't talked about more. During the gas allocation times, there'd be a glut of gas in Florida and long lines in California because the DoE would allocate gas based on the previous year's usage patterns. Things change constantly, and the DoE was unable to adapt.

I had a friend who bought a gas station. It took him months to get a gas allocation from the DoE because the gas station across the street challenged his allocation, for obvious reasons.

When the market decides where to put the gas, the tanker trucks take gas from the glutted areas and move it to the shortage areas as a natural action. Any reasonable business moves product to where it is selling.