U.S. Gasoline Consumption Plummets By Nearly 75%

a reply to: markosity1973

That'd be nice if we didnt go to war and the economy wasnt destroyed and everyone could buy new cars (which are insanely priced) consider the generations just getting out of school. Also consider they have the technology to get 80 mpg easy. Hell they have a car that gets almost 200 mpg and 300 with battery. Of course there are only like 2 of that particular car.

Have any of you ever looked at the taxes you pay per gallon on fuel?

State and federal... It's insane, some states higher than others, California is highest, at around $0.71 per gallon for gasoline and $0.74 per gallon for diesel.

Imagine that revenue stream $$$$$.

I travel the roads in this country quite a lot, and I swear it seems there are more vehicles on the road now than ever before.. but that is just an observation.

With new EPA regulations and arbitrary unilateral restrictions on energy on the way, costs will skyrocket for energy eventually. The thinking is that if people have to pay more, they will consume less, even Obama has said that Americans should pay more for gas and energy... Change forced through higher costs?

Maybe they don't realize that they are destroying the economy in this process?.... Or worse, maybe they do?

Less people working less hours?? I started noticing a few years back that the morning commutes seemed to have less and less cars on the road and fridays were really down. Maybe companies changed their schedules to working 4 10 hour days instead of 5 8 hour days or something?

What has changed:

We have bred a tremendous amount of asshats who believe that a shiny, inanimate object is more valuable than a flesh and blood, breathing person.

These asshats inserted themselves as middlemen in bringing gas to market.

The way gasoline and diesel is marketed in the US changed to benefit the dear, good, Tennessee friend of Al Gore, Jimmy Haslam...instead of making a couple of cents on every gallon sold, this tremendous asshat decided it would be better to make over 20 cents each gallon.

a reply to: Bassago

I don't know how many posters on here are old enough to remember just how vastly different the U.S. was back in 1970. Gas was around 35 cents a gallon the first time I was old enough to notice it. There were a lot of jobs. REAL jobs that paid something you could live on, and had decent benefits. It wasnt utopia but something existed then that doesn't now; you had hope that the future would only get better. There was optimism. Thats whats missing now. Yes, we have a lot of great gadgets and technology and there are things to be optimistic about. But the general optimism that your kids will have a better chance and a better life than you did is woefully missing from our society. A big reason for this IMHO, is that we have shifted from a manufacturing colossus, to service economy. The number of jobs that you can support a family on, buy a house with, and put your kids through college, is inexcusably low, in the "richest country on Earth". The buying power of millions of Americans has been reduced to JUST the basic staples for survival, and really not even that. You cannot run a first world economy and a first world country on 3rd world wages. Which I think is the likely reason for the push for immigration reform and amnesty. They want to supplant our population with people who are used to living that way. A population with lowered expectations. And some of it is the fault of the average American. We wanted cheaper and cheaper, we didn't care how we got it. We didn't care if cheaper meant that maybe your neighbors job would be sent to Singapore. At least not at first. Now that it becomes our job that may be leaving we start to worry. We have a crisis of conscience in this country, compounded by a profound lack of sincere empathy by the elites. If we manage to fix those two things we have a chance at a future. Otherwise we are going to be a vast sea of misery.

That figure seems extreme, but I can believe that U.S. citizens have tightened their belts and adapted to our economic situation to the point of supporting a society in decline, even to the degree of a drop of 75% gasoline consumption over 15 years.

We are resourceful and can handle a lot and have since 2008, they (government) depend on our capacity to do so.

Unfortunately, there will come the day when the camel's back can only hold one more straw.

It reminds me of the last big boss I had. When he asked me how I did over the winter, I told him it was really lean and I never wanted to cut it that close again. I never asked for a raise and was only seeking a little sympathy, but he laughed at me and said, "You ought to be used to it by now." I guess the joke was on me, slave that I was.

So I repeat his sage wisdom and say that we all "ought to be used to it by now."

a reply to: Grimpachi
your charts don't say the same thing? They both show a dip at 2008,but the price side is way off? OOPS,my bad.The top is just regular,the bottom is all grades. That said,I still don't remember 1.75 gas back then. I do recall the spike when the market crashed.

a reply to: pirhanna

Somethings up for sure...

Weekly gasoline imports down


weekly exports up


very confusing.

a reply to: xuenchen

Dramatic numbers like this? What's up, in my opinion, is the temperature of the home fires used to cook the books.

Someone cooked the damn things SO badly this time, they couldn't even get the end results to pass the laugh test. The United States...drops by 3/4 on gas use? Hey, that's one helluva political coup ....days before announcing the largest environmental regulatory initiative in a generation..as it's been described for a month now. Yes..indeed..what timing they have on this.

Someone mentioned fuel efficiency, and no doubt that has part of it to account for the numbers..but 75%? That isn't efficient. That's Nobel Peace Prize achievement level...George Jetson level, if it were actually done. 10-15% efficiency on gas avg. with 4 wheeler fuel numbers would be a measurable drop in consumption but not 2/3rd..

Nope..I think they went SO far beyond stupid with this one, the books were still smoking when they showed the press, unless there is some weird trick of the numbers for how they came up with it. They are redefining the way many numbers are calculated now. So..perhaps that too?

Crikey!
I still cant figure out how come you burn Canadian gas at less than half the price we pay for it in Canada!
I pay 1.34 per LITRE.....ie. $7.00 a gallon!

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Silly Wrabbit.... This is the USA, since when has any report contained numbers that actually reflect reality?

Well, the internet and internet shopping did cause a reduction in people going out to stores. People are starting to use pantries, this means they make fewer trips to the store. People can't afford to eat out as much, so they don't travel to the restaurant, they cook at home. It is just canceling out the wasted practices we were doing before.

Cars are more efficient also, and the increasing price of gas does make people carpool more. The rising price of food and essentials like utilities means less people can go for a ride or go out as much. I can see a big reduction of consumption. There was a lot more traffic on the highway here in 2000 than there is now, people do not go ten miles to shop to save a buck now. People are wising up everywhere.

Rats, for some reason spell checking isn't working again. edit, got it turned back on again...

a reply to: ausername

Isn't that the truth, lies, damn lies and statistics.

the government chooses to measure U.S. gasoline consumption in a very odd manner: by measuring the amount of gasoline entering the domestic supply-chain rather than by measuring actual consumption at the other end of the supply-chain – i.e. “at the pump”.

Since the "consumption" figures using this method are so fungible we almost have to find folks on the road and ask them what's going on. From the posts here it seems we have a few observations:

1. Highways seem crowded as ever.
2. Commuters seem down.
3. Many folks cutting back.
4. Many young folks not even driving.
5. Fuel efficiency is increasing.

Not sure what this means specifically other than car and truck transportation in America has indeed passed the glory days. Perhaps overall the elites felt cheap travel for the proles was a bad idea and killed it but there's still a bunch of older folk running around the interstates in their Winnebago's.

a reply to: Bassago

Well where I live many have taken to bikes, they cannot afford gas. i see them bringing food home in the rain on their bikes :-(

My car has had gas stolen, my sister in Sac had her gas stolen it is epidemic they take a gallon here and there they can't afford to buy.

We used to take runs to a hiking area a couple times a week 40 mins round trip or so, we used to drive just to "go for a drive" we don't do any of that any more, the gas to get to work is taking so much we can't use it for fun.

a reply to: rickymouse

It is just canceling out the wasted practices we were doing before.

You mean the only enjoyable things the non rich have beside work, cleaning, repair, work.....

a reply to: snarky412

When I asked at my local Costco as to why the prices were nearly identical to regular (and premium) gas stations I was advised that crude refinement was still biased to fuel for home heating. Thus there was less gasoline being produced maintaining high wholesale prices across the board. There was no room to negotiate prices which Costco does to get that normal dime or so lesser price.
Higher prices, crap economy, diverted petroleum production lessens demand.
This can change but the trend is being set.

a reply to: Bassago

There is ONE way to gauge traffic patterns ...and it's a real crappy way, but it's accurate to a far greater degree than that reading of tea leaves or whatever they do by the new info you bring about it.

The US is coming to have enough Toll roads and Parkways to insure some areas see commuters having to take at least one of them, daily. New York, Chicago and even some areas of Texas these days..come to mind.

Check gross revenues on toll receipts and make sure to account for toll increases for when they happened and how much in %. That should give an end result of a fairly solid look at how much traffic has really changed in at least those major transportation corridors.

originally posted by: stirling
Crikey!
I still cant figure out how come you burn Canadian gas at less than half the price we pay for it in Canada!
I pay 1.34 per LITRE.....ie. $7.00 a gallon!

Taxes. The government makes more money off a gallon of gas than the oil companies do in the US. Think what that is in Europe, which taxes gas at a much higher rate. It is simply the government practicing social-engineering in the only way they know how, by taxing the crap out of the citizens.

In my state the government is "upset" because electric cars don't pay fuel taxes and "this is not fair!" So they want to charge electric cars extra. Think about it. The government has been preaching conservation and insisting on higher CAFE mileage stats. They achieve those goals and their revenue goes down, which they are compelled to replace with new taxes.

a reply to: CB328

originally posted by: CB328
I am calling BS on this, though no doubt there are plenty of people cutting back. I know that in the last decade there have been quite a few people moving to high gas-mileage cars, but I still see huge trucks everywhere, so I can't believe that gas usage has dropped significantly.

I would agree 100%

This is propaganda put out by the State to then try and justify taxing or charging drivers by the mile.

They are going to try and claim that because "gas consumption is so low, our revenues have dropped".

BS.

DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO TAX US BY THE MILE.

There is already a gasoline tax per gallon so we're already being taxed based on usage.

Enough is enough.

originally posted by: CB328
I am calling BS on this, though no doubt there are plenty of people cutting back. I know that in the last decade there have been quite a few people moving to high gas-mileage cars, but I still see huge trucks everywhere, so I can't believe that gas usage has dropped significantly.

That chart and article is for gasoline only, NOT diesel. I think it is very possible, there should be at least a 50% drop in consumption simply because the gas mileage on post 2000 vehicles has become quite high. Then consider the number of hybrids and high efficiency diesel cars. The reason the price is so high is because demand has dropped, not supply and the entire petroleum industry is in collusion and thereby unilaterally sets whatever price they want to maintain profits. (Normally a drop in demand would produce a drop in price, but we operate under a predatory economic system which seems in many cases to invert the expected outcome).

Cheers - Dave