Nixon froze prices and wages for a while, but I don't remember gasoline prices being really high (perhaps 40 cents a gallon). It wasn't until the Carter administration that gas prices really went up.
Carter tried to develop alternatives to oil consumption and he promoted conservation. He put solar panels on the White House (removed by Reagan) and instituted a 55-mile per hour speed limit. He started the strategic energy reserve. I don't think he did anything to directly control prices. Of course, he didn't have to deal with greedy price speculators, as Bush should (although he doesn't act).
In foreign policy, Carter instituted the disastrous Carter Doctrine (which led to the first Gulf War and is partially to blame for the mess in Iraq) and he worked to bring about peace in the Middle East (for which he won the Nobel Prize) and which Bush talks about, but doesn't try to do.
