U.S. Gasoline Consumption Plummets By Nearly 75%

I'm seriously not buying it ... I live near I95. I hear the traffic ... I see it every day ... I drive in it every day ... nothing has changed. I'm in the landing pattern for the Philly airport. Planes flying overhead to land every day. Nothing has lessened.

a reply to: FlyersFan
Actually, a bit less traffic. Not that you would notice.
A 2% decline in annual vehicle miles from 2007 (pretty typical following a recession). Hard to reconcile with that "collapse" in consumption.

Source

Every day some thousands of baby boomers 'retire'; then there's the almost 25% unemployment/low employment rate. If you live in a big city you probably use public transit because who can afford a car with those apartment rates, and no parking available?

While some of those retirees are heading off to parts unknown in their Winnebagos, I'm willing to bet that many more are hunkering down in abject fear for the future and not going anywhere for a while.

I just did the math and since I came back from a long trek to S. California to housesit for an elderly aunt on November 20th last year, I've driven exactly 120 miles. In six months.... I'm starting to wonder if the car needs oil changes even if it doesn't go anywhere.

Anyone want to buy a creampuff '99 Lexus?

This is a big, DUH!! by now. The US economy can't handle gas over ~120 a barrel, hence the reason why the price is lower here than over in Asia. Asia is willing to pay higher prices. It's not pure supply and demand anymore, it's a bit more complicated. People are simply not willing to pay over a threshold, and the miles drop if we breach that threshold.

All over the world bikes are selling faster than automobiles, and we've divested out of oil into other energy sources. Nearly 40% of world energy came from oil a decade ago, now it's down to nearly 30%. It would be interesting to see how many miles were walked, and biked as a percentage increase as the miles on automobiles decreased.

People are now cooking at home more, drinking at home more, and in general just staying in, or locally, within walking/biking distance. You'll see more of this over the decade, as peak net energy turns more into major energy declines.

The recent activity with economic warfare involving Russia and the US has made me recall this thread. Was the US stockpiling gasoline to manipulate gas/oil prices and demand in an attempt to spar with Russia? Well played US if so.

a reply to: Bassago

Interesting article. I read the entire article. It does state that they measure it in an odd (and to me ridiculous) way. It all comes down to faulty math and bad statistics.

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: Bassago

This has got to be one of the biggest indicators that the economy is dying. We are in trouble folks.

Yup.

The economy *IS* that bad.

The MSMalarkey is doing a good job of hiding the facts.

Not if you ask Obama, he says more than 10M insured, the stock market is good, the economy. Weird that no one is asking him why 65% if American children on the government dole. And why is he only taking questions from women? He's asked like 6-7 women and no men. And he just took last call.

I don't think the chart is wrong.

ETA: Info is accurate, I checked another site (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com...) from a post in April 2012. If Dept. of Energy is lying, they've been doing it for a long time.