US retail gasoline demand year-to-date down 1 pct-MasterCard

Indeed. They are trying to manipulate prices by not putting 70K bbl/day into the strategic reserve, but I can't see that helping much.

 

IMO this is great news.

 

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the refineries cut production to match the reduction in demand in order to keep prices high.

 

Its such a stupid move. They are going to have to fill it later with $140 oil.

1% is not a very big drop. I am glad to see it but we could save more then that by just properly inflating our tires.

I am still being passed by people at 80mph or higher on I95.

 

I agree. I still see a lot Big Obnoxious SUV and trucks with a single passenger, doing 80mph or even greater. There are very few people car pooling. The 7% for the past week is encouraging, but it needs to be for a longer period.

 

patience lads. These thing take time. Here in CO people have slowed down somewhat. Don't know about ridership on RTD or carpooling, but people are, in general, driving slower and less aggressively.

 

People drive the mega trucks because it is their right and so it seems is 80mph, they won't give either up. They would rather not feed their children.

 

It's so weird...some days I'll be in a pack of cars all going around the limit (40-45) and everyone just seems to be chilling out. But sometimes on that same road, I'll be passed by about 20 different SUVs and trucks, all going 10-20 over the limit. Same route, same time each day - some people have gotten the message, some obviously still haven't.

On the road we take to drop off our kids the limit is 25 (it's a residential area). We always keep it around 25, no faster than 30 ever. We saw -for the first time - a motorcycle cop sitting on the sidewalk with his radar gun. I told my husband "he's going to have easy pickings on this road!"

Sure enough, by the time we dropped off our kids and pulled back onto the road, he had pulled TWO big trucks over for speeding.

 

Bush grovels in Saudi Arabia, begging for more oil. Price of oil spikes up. Anyone surprised?

Saudis rebuff Bush's request to pump more oil - CNN.com

Harry

 

Kids aren't cost effective. Oh wait, that's hybrids.

 

Wait a minute!!!! :suspicious:

You people, of all, are surprised????

The United States is the largest purchaser of Prii . . .
. . . AND YOU DIDN'T EXPECT GASOLINE DEMAND TO GO DOWN?? :crazy:

:hail: Man, those Prii are goooooooood!ound:

 

The Dep't of Energy's data says it's more like 2.5% year-over-year reduction, through Feb. 2008 (their most recent posted data, see attached). The data seem a little volatile, but demand was down 2.5% or more in each month since Dec 2007.

I wonder if the Mastercard data are understating the true drop. There's a lot of popular press about people running up credit card debt to pay for basics including gas. The lower Visa number might the drop in purchases partially offset by some former cash customers who are now putting their gas purchases on their credit cards.

Anyway, there appears to be independent confirmation of the drop from DOE.

EDIT: Attachment doesn't show. Data are at:
U.S. Total Gasoline All Sales/Deliveries by Prime Supplier (Thousand Gallons per Day)

 

Their Annual data has gasoline sales equal to approx. one month's worth. At least one of their summaries is wrong. Interesting though.