PNW consumer gas use down

[HardyWeinberg]

Spurred by high prices, residents of Washington, Oregon and Idaho are using less gas, bringing per capita consumption to a four-decade low, according to the Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based think tank.

Residents of the three states are using 10 percent less gasoline per person than in 1999 - the equivalent of each person taking a one-month vacation from driving every year, the report said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WST_Cascadia_Scorecard.html

I wonder where they got their figures from, and I wonder how much consumer gas use is a measurable proportion of oil use at all, or if it's just rounding error on diesel used for trucking etc...

[gerv]

This article has an interesting section about a family going Ford-free. I wonder if that segment of the population is up also.

But it would be interesting to compare gas use to electric, just to make sure folks weren't switching. Even in the conservative midWest, I keep running into people who talk about energy conservation, so... maybe people are actually doing something about it as well.

[Roody]

Inelastic?

[acroy]

interesting that the featured family is composed of a real estate investor, Microsoft engineer, and 3 kids! a mainstream family goes car-free. smart!