jjon90 said:
Hmm..Consumption way down and prices still high! You smelling what I'm stepping in? :mrgreen:
"Consumption way down"? How do you figure? While gasoline usage is down slightly since before the 2008 Great Recession, it hasn't been by much. And usage was up a bit from 2012 to 2013:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mgfupus1&f=a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
[3,389,269,000 barrels in 2007 to 3,202,542,000 barrels in 2013 is a reduction of 5.5% over six years. Hardly "way down".]
Improved MPG figures for cars take many years to have an effect since it takes a long time for the newer cars to replace the older ones. In the meantime, the population and number of miles driven tends to increase, offsetting some of the efficiency improvements.
And I don't know about gas prices increasing either. Around here the price of $3.459/gallon is down somewhat from what it was several weeks ago. Yes, that's higher than a decade ago but oil prices have also been rather high over the last year since they are primarily dependent on worldwide demand and supply, not USA demand and supply.