Fuel Prices in The United States
U.S. petroleum consumption reached an estimated 18.87 million barrels per day in 2011, and is expected to increase to 18.96 million barrels per day in 2012. U.S. gasoline demand decreased to an average of 8.75 million barrels per day in 2011 (approximately 368 million gallons per day), or about 41 million fill-ups per day (based on a 9-gallon fill-up). Demand for 2012 is projected to continue to decline to 8.74 million barrels per day. Drivers in the United States traveled 8.105 billion miles per day in 2011, and are expected to travel 8.158 billion miles per day in 2012. This equates to an average of 33 miles per vehicle per day. On average, U.S. drivers consume 1.49 gallons of gasoline per day, or about 10.44 gallons per week.
In 2008, a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates stated that 2007 had been the year of peak gasoline usage in the United States, and that record energy prices would cause an "enduring shift" in energy consumption practices. According to the report, in April fuel consumption had been lower than a year before for the sixth straight month, suggesting 2008 would be the first year US usage declined in 17 years. The total annual distance driven in the US began declining in 2006.
The average price in 2012 (as of December 31, 2012) was $3.618, the highest ever for a year. As of December 31, 2012, the average price of gasoline was $3.298, with New York at $3.70 for the highest in the U.S., and Colorado at $2.987 for the lowest.
Finished motor gasoline amounts to 44% of the total US consumption of petroleum products. This corresponds to 18.5 Exajoules per year. As of 2012 the cost of crude oil accounted for 62% of the cost of a gallon of gasoline in the United State while refining accounted for just 12%. Taxes and distribution/marketing accounted for 12% and 14% respectively.
Read more about this topic: Gasoline And Diesel Usage And Pricing
Famous quotes containing the words united states, fuel, prices, united and/or states:
“The real charm of the United States is that it is the only comic country ever heard of.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Beware the/easy griefs, that fool and fuel nothing./It is too easy to cry “AFRIKA!”/and shock thy street,/and purse thy mouth,/and go home to thy “Gunsmoke,” to/thy “Gilligan’s Island” and the NFL.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“To expect to increase prices and then to maintain them at a higher level by means of a plan which must of necessity increase production while decreasing consumption is to fly in the face of an economic law as well established as any law of nature.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children’s children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,
When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallowed cities up,
And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing, yet let memory
From false to false among false maids in love
Upbraid my falsehood.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)