Article: America’s hunger for gasoline falls and is unlikely to return

[MetroMPG]

From the Boston Herald:

The United States used more gasoline than ever in 2007 and far more than any other country. It seemed as if America’s growing appetite for gas would go on forever. Well, it won’t — and things may never be the same.

Gasoline consumption has been down the last two years, in part because of the recession. Even when the economy picks up, three underlying trends mean the United States might never use as much gas again:

And the reasons they give are:

• tougher government mandated fuel economy rules (CAFE)
• saturated auto market (limited future growth)
• increasing alt fuel options entering the market

I find it a bit difficult to believe that things won't peak again once the economy recovers. I think people generally have short memories.

But the CEO of Mobil disagrees & states he believes gasoline demand is on the decline.

Full article: America’s hunger for gasoline falls and is unlikely to return - BostonHerald.com

[Frank Lee]

Gasoline use will continue to rise at every opportunity the consumer thinks they can afford it.

Not only that, america is a nation of immigration, breeders, and immigrant breeders. Even if per capita use drops, the net sum of this game is rising consumption until the supply peters out and/or the costs of alternatives become more than competitive.

[Cd]

[thatguitarguy]

This must be either a "woe is me" ruse to set Mobil up for a gov't bailout, because people aren't buying enough gas, or a reverse psychology stunt to give people the OK to buy more gas because nobody else is doing it.

Sure I trust him. It's not like he's the CEO of Exxon...

[tjts1]

Funny how people refuse to believe good news when it doesn't fit in with their preconceptions.

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by tjts1

Funny how people refuse to believe good news when it doesn't fit in with their preconceptions.

...or, conversely, bad news when it does!

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Not only that, america is a nation of immigration, breeders, and immigrant breeders. Even if per capita use drops, the net sum of this game is rising consumption until the supply peters out and/or the costs of alternatives become more than competitive.

I dunno Frank. Oil consumption in the late seventies was ~19mbpd, and today it's ~19mbpd. There are almost a hundred million more people now compared to 1975, but use hasn't increased much. It looks like oil consumption is bounded at ~20mbpd, and will remain that way even as population increases until it drops depending on all sorts of elasticities.

[bgd73]

I know how to fix this.
limit fuel for entire surnames.
for every new child, the family can't use as much fuel.

and if they think they can hump america into a mini china..well, they'll have to get on the train with a promise of a new job, and make VW beetles and stuff, ya know after inline fours are banned, we are gonna need boxer engines.

and then, all the other little cars get banned forever. Need an aeromod? car is pansy, anti-man, anti-life, anti-work and selfish. put that on a rail car of the same train to hell...

see. it is simple. we just need a crazy supremicist.

[rmay635703]

I find it strange that despite reductions in demand, a massive surplus of oil production worldwide, reductions in the cost of production of oil (aka improvements) reductions in the cost of refining do to outsourcing and a cost per gallon roughly double what it was a relatively short while ago (at the pump) that the price of fuel (at the pump) has not dropped and that oil companies can't make money despite it.

Think about it, they could make money at $1.25 a gallon at roughly the same demand with higher costs of production. Now with over double selling price at the pump, outsourced refinement at lower costs and effectively the same demand as several years back they can't make it.

I smell scam, likely they want us to pay for their "unnecessary" exploration and the fact that they are adding massive amounts of storage. Most of the exploration is mothballed to increase fuel costs and because they don't have anywhere to store oil if found, they have to keep building more storage as it is.

Nice running 200%+ of storage cap compared to a few years back

Also as for reasons, many people around even here in Oshkosh still ride the bus, I never saw a soul on a bus until fuel spiked and those that started now continue to ride the bus in droves (I doubt any reduction in gas would bring them back), I believe a good segment of the poorer of our population has wised up a tad. Owning a car is more like the car owning you and is a big money pit. Also many americans are out of work and have been for nearly a decade, here in wisconsin right after the trade towers were hit we have been bleeding real jobs, those that are unemployed are unlikely to have a car.

Despite what we see america is forever changing, our "economy" will never be what it was, our governments central planning has stated repeatedly that they want to equalize our income levels here with other countries; so long as "free" trade exists, if you can call it that, we will have money drained out of here sent abroad to build up other nations at our direct expense. Until our money doesn't buy their stuff which may be sooner than you think at our current rate.

Unless there is actual willpower in our government to fight for its own people to force redeveloping manufacturing by one means or another, to force a move back to family farms that treat animals like animals and not machines. I personally don't believe a family farm can exist reasonably with current land and property tax situations. You will likely see a continuation of what we have now for at least a decade and once its over things will still be very different than they were. The recovery likely won't affect most americans, just as the Bush jobless recovery didn't help the out of work here in wisconsin.

What we are seeing is what happens when a planned failure is executed by central banks as a power grab. Too bad we can't figure a way of taking our government back from lobbies and putting normal human beings back into congress.

And if you vote for one of the big 2 parties you are probably apart of the problem, you can't expect anything different unless you do something different.

Cheers
Ryan

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

I find it strange that despite reductions in demand, a massive surplus of oil production worldwide, reductions in the cost of production of oil (aka improvements) reductions in the cost of refining do to outsourcing and a cost per gallon roughly double what it was a relatively short while ago (at the pump) that the price of fuel (at the pump) has not dropped and that oil companies can't make money despite it.

None of this is true.