National Energy Program. The government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau enacted the NEP in 1980. The program came from the wake of the energy crises of the 1970s and was designed to promote oil self-sufficiency, maintain the oil supply for industry in eastern Canada, promote lower prices and oil-exploration, and increase government revenues from oil sales through increased taxes. The program was enormously unpopular in Western Canada, and heightened distrust of the federal government.