U.S. Demand for Gasoline Down, Will Continue to Drop Say Experts
According to statistics, today Americans are using approximately 8 percent less fuel to power their cars than they did in 2006, which is recognized as the peak for U.S. oil consumption.
However, Americans still remain the number one consumer of oil of the planet, gobbling up 8.2 million barrels of the black gold each day. According to experts in the oil industry and in government, future forecasting predicts gasoline consumption will continue to drop, by as much as 20 percent in the next two decades, even as an estimated 27 million vehicles join the roads. Some of the reasons cited include less driving by baby boomers and more and more fuel efficient cars augmenting the existing vehicle fleet in North America.
However, there are those who predict that increased consumption from countries like China and India, as well as parts of the Middle East, will negate a lot of that decrease, so overall global demand for oil is likely to remain much the same, at least during the coming decade.
[Source: The Associated Press]
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