Americans Start to Curb Their Thirst for Gasoline

[jpak]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120451858896807177.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

As crude-oil prices climb to historic highs, steep gasoline prices and the weak economy are beginning to curb Americans' gas-guzzling ways.

In the past six weeks, the nation's gasoline consumption has fallen by an average 1.1% from year-earlier levels, according to weekly government data.

That's the most sustained drop in demand in at least 16 years, except for the declines that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which temporarily knocked out a big chunk of the U.S. gasoline supply system.

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[phantom power]

1. I see a couple things going on here.

One is that people are beginning to internalize the idea that high gas prices aren't transient. The other is that economic troubles in other arenas, like the credit meltdown, loss of jobs from the softening housing market, etc, are putting additional pressure on people to reduce spending.