U.S. Gasoline Consumption Plummets By Nearly 75%

Zero hedge - BullionBullsCanada ^ | 5-31-2014 | Jeff Nielsen

[blam]

Tyler Durden
05/30/2014

Submitted by Jeff Nielsen via BullionBullsCanada blog,

Regular readers are familiar with my narratives on the U.S. Greater Depression, and (in particular) some of the government’s own charts which depict this economic meltdown most vividly. The collapse in the “civilian participation rate” (the number of people working in the economy) and the “velocity of money” (the heartbeat of the economy) indicate an economy which is not merely in decline, but rather is being sucked downward in a terminal (and accelerating) death-spiral.

However, even that previously published data, and the grim analyses which accompanied it could not prepare me for the horror story contained in data passed along by an alert reader. U.S. “gasoline consumption” – as measured by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) itself – has plummeted by nearly 75%, from its all-time peak in July of 1998. A near-75% collapse in U.S. gasoline consumption has occurred in little more than 15 years.

Before getting into an analysis of the repercussions of this data, however, it’s necessary to properly qualify the data. Obviously, even in the most-nightmarish economic Armageddon, a (relatively short-term) 75% collapse in gasoline consumption is simply not possible. Unless we were dealing with a nation whose economy had been suddenly ripped apart by civil war, or some small nation devastated by a massive earthquake or tsunami; it’s simply not possible for any economy to just disintegrate that rapidly, without there being some ultra-powerful exogenous force also at work.

So how can this raw data, produced by the government itself, be explained? To begin with; 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

(snip)

[Wyatt's Torch]

Combination of higher fuel efficiency and flatlining miles driven:

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/travel_monitoring/14martvt/14martvt.pdf

Page 9

[Jim from C-Town]

‘Diesel consumption would be a better indicator of the economy’

Yes & no. Diesel would show the actual use of trucks and show the delivery of goods. But gas consumption shows the amount of driving a society is doing. A majority of driving is done to facilitate work. If you do not work, you rarely drive. Or at least you drive much less. Even unemployed people need to buy food and staples.

Most suburbanites drive an average of forty miles per day, 20 miles per day , 200 miles per week for work. With extra driving for picking up and dropping off kids, trips to shopping and the in laws you can expect to drive around 300-350 miles per week. Approximately 1 tank of gas per week. If two people in the household work, or the norm before 2009, two tanks per week per household.

Eliminate one worker per household, half the gas is used.

We KNOW there are 25 million people NOT working that USED to work. Eliminate 25 million jobs, eliminate 25 million tanks per week, 106.25 tanks per month. Average tank for 2010 sedan is 18.5 gallons. 165,625,000 gallons per month. or about 70,000,000 barrels of oil a month. On Average.

That adds up to lots and lots of extra gas and oil NOT being used here and surely being used in China and India.

Unemployed people don’t drive very often.

[TADSLOS]

Since 1792.

[roadcat]

Must have sold a lot more Chevy Volts than we thought./sarc

Was thinking the same thing! Back in 2009, my liberal brother-in-law made a bet with me that in five years, electric cars would take over the market from gasoline cars, and on top of that there would be no more gasoline-powered cars. We bet $100. I'll try to collect this summer when five years is up. He must be hacking the government gas-use figures!

Unfortunately, he's suffering some dementia now so I'll have to work at prying the money from his hands…

[jjotto]

Here’s another classic Zero Hedge kook piece:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3158191/posts

[Daveinyork]

Price goes up, demand goes down. The demand for gasoline was always more elastic than the economists think.

[unixfox]

Gotta be all of those new electric cars. Just has to be.

[adorno]

U.S. Gasoline Consumption Plummets By Nearly 75%

That drop in gasoline consumption is directly proportional to the number of people who dropped out of the workforce.

:)

But, fudging with statistics aside, the fact remains that, with millions of fewer people in the workforce, the demand for gasoline will naturally be a lot less.

[Delta 21]

Just more of the same political math that has Obammay still ahead in the polls, icebergs melting from beneath polar bears, and Chewbacca “passing laws” concerning food your kids wont eat and advocating more math that makes their world view “add up”.

I’m tired of this ride.

[jsanders2001]

We can’hardly afford to pay our mortgages and buy food at the same time anymore because of the great Obama economy. Are they really surprised?

[Proud2BeRight]

There is something obviously wrong with the 75% number.
FAQ from US Dept of Energy:
“How much gasoline does the United States consume?
In 2013, about 134.51 billion gallons1 (or 3.20 billion barrels) of gasoline were consumed2 in the United States, a daily average of about 368.51 million gallons (or 8.77 million barrels). This was about 6% less than the record high of about 142.35 billion gallons (or 3.39 billion barrels) consumed in 2007.”
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=23&t=10

[onedoug]

obamanomics

islamism regardless how it’s cut.

[Mastador1]

Not unexpected, when people don’t have jobs, they neither have money or anywhere to go. I guess Pelosi was right about unemployment checks boosting the economy. What do we have now over a million, more? erased off the unemployment rolls receiving no benefits and no work available. What could possibly happen to the economy.

[kearnyirish2]

“We can hardly afford to pay our mortgages and buy food at the same time anymore because of the great Obama economy. Are they really surprised?”

No, not at all. It is working out exactly how the Dems planned. I’ve never seen white people reduced to such a state as I see now; we are reaching the Dems’ vision of “equality”. Who do you think most of the new recipients of food stamps are? The gibsmedats were already on the rolls for generations...

[Eagles6]

If he’s a lib he was already suffering from dementia.

[kearnyirish2]

“Going Galt?”

No, going “Red Chinese Peasant”. Americans are fleeing my area, and are replaced by hordes of Aztecs and Incas riding bikes to their under-the-table jobs...

[Sacajaweau]

Ridiculous

[Milton Miteybad]

Exactly. The chart shows clearly that refiners are selling fewer gallons at retail, primarily because they are getting out of the retail gasoline biz altogether. Some vapor brain at ZeroHedge therefore concludes that because refiners are selling less gas, the consuming public is buying less gas.

In reality, of course, the motoring public's appetite for gasoline is still fairly strong, and within a few tenths of a percent, they're buying as much as they ever have.

But they're buying their gas from retailers who aren't refiners, I.e., from convenience store operators who sell gas so you'll come in and buy higher margin items like beer and smokes. All the ZeroHedge chart shows is that the refiners are exiting the retail gas biz. But ZH doesn't draw the correct conclusion from the chart.

[InterceptPoint]

I was reading about this last night. Bogus!

My first reaction too. I don't believe it.

[Squantos]

Oklahoma credit cards .....