The Rise And Fall Of U.S. Gasoline (PHOTOS)

Experts say U.S. gasoline demand is at the start of a long-term decline, and while U.S. consumers have gotten used to rising gas prices and falling demand for U.S. gas in the new millennium, that hasn't always been the case. Here's a quick timeline on the history of U.S. gas from the AP:

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1905 - First Gas Station

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1905 – Country's first gasoline filling station is built in St. Louis

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1905 – Country's first gasoline filling station is built in St. Louis

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Comments

[kunosoura]

08:48 PM on 01/23/2011

Well facts seem to matter little now days, but here are a few. A "hydrogen car" produces 17% more CO2 into atmosphere than gasoline car. US Dept Energy 374 g CO2 per mile for gasoline powered car; 436 g CO2/mi. for hydrogen powered car, same course & all that. Electrolysis of water to get hydrogen is 13.6 kJoules/g . Hydrogen cars politicians have hyped for fifty years is a hoax. It "hydrogen economy" will do nothing to conserve resources, curb pollution, or reduce carbom dioxide emissions. Of couse LA would be happy to have non-polluting hydrogen & get electricity from Utah to produce it. Pollute Utah,not LA. Last, briefly, almost everything is a "heat engine", humans, cars, power plants so Thermodynamics 101 limits efficiency, everything less than 50%, so half energy is "wasted" into lost heat (into atmosphere). Why ? Because god said so. Next, fuel cells. A fuel cell does not function in th way a heat engine does & therefore not subject to Thermo. limits on efficiency of heat engines. A fuel cell might be 60 to 70% efficient, i.e. 3 or 4 times more efficient than the usual gasoling or diesel engine. Considering the hundreds of milions of cars trucks operating in teh world the potential energ saving is enormous. A cell combines 1 kg of H with 8 kg oxygen, produces 200 MJ electicity, enough to burn a 100 Watt light bulb for 4 weeks. I am engineer retired in Ozark Mtns.

[kunosoura]

08:00 PM on 01/23/2011

Your comment on slide #11 makes no sense. It claims data of gasoline in barrels and also in gallons. A barrel of oil (crude oil) is 42 gal. From the refining process 19.7 gal of gasoline is obtained. You should check the validy of your sources before you"print" it. A 42 gal bbl of crude produces: 1.25 gal Petro feedstocks; 1.3 gal Asphalt & road oil; 2.9 gal boiler oil; 4.2 gal lubricnats & waxes; 4.2 ga. jet fuel; 8.4 gal Diesel & heating oil; and last 19.7 gal gasoline. Signing in to your comments (to post) is a pain in the donkey. Clean up your software.

[FallOfRome]

02:52 PM on 01/22/2011

Cellulosic ethanol is the future.. quote me.

[NOOTPOSTSFORISREAL]

07:17 PM on 01/22/2011

Yeah, these gas prices drive me to drinking too.

[Greyfox01]

05:09 PM on 01/20/2011

Oil is not getting harder to find. If they were still using 1990 drilling technology it might be harder to drill for but never harder to find. Satellites using microwave has been around for decades that can pin point crude in the ground. There is enough crude just within the US boarders to wean us from OPEC, I'm not saying drill drill drill, but I am saying we don't need to cut the legs off any chance off a recovery, like speculation did in 2008. Lee Raymond former CEO of Exxon Mobil in an interview with Charlie Rose in a 2002 said that there was enough available crude to last 250 years at 2002 rate of use, that with the new horizontal drilling that could be 350 years. Today speculation accounts for 74% of the price of crude. To help force prices up over 150 single & the newer double hull tankers are being used to store crude off shore in a number places on the planet. Each tanker averaging 2 million barrel, Crushing Oklahoma over 375 million barrel are store and shipped via pipeline to refineries. Then we have the strategic military reserve of over 375 million barrels. Here's a little known fact, our governments retirement fund in city, county, state & federal government is primarily finance via hedge funds in the business of electronically buying and selling crude. This nation is being held hostage by the likes of Goldman Sachs, OPEC and others ... and that's just the

[demilieu]

04:36 PM on 01/02/2011

Until the industry is nationalized...which will never happen here. And even then, there'd be a lot of hanky panky going on, because that's man's nature when there's something so profitable in the mix. So it's all about speculation to drive the price up, not about core supply. The supply is always there. What's key is how much is released to the market and how much is held in reserves.

[Kenz300]

02:53 PM on 01/02/2011

The era of cheap energy is over. Oil is getting harder to find and costs more to drill
in deep water. Our global economy was built on cheap energy. Things will begin to change.
We need to develop a more sustainable model with wind, solar, geothermal and second
generation biofuels all contributing to our energy and economic security.

It is time to end the oil monopoly on transportation fuel.

Fueling stations should have gas, ethanol, diesel, biodiesel, CNG, electric charging stations
and battery swap out points.

We need to DIVERSIFY our transportation fuels and give consumers a choice at the pump
and add some competition.

Bring on the electric, flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles.

As China and India continue to grow their use of oil demand for oil will soon exceed the
available supply causing prices to rise. The great recession caused world wide demand
for oil to drop and prices followed. Now that the world economy is growing again (especially in Asia) prices and demand for oil is going up.

If you remember the long lines at the gas station during the oil embargo of the 1970's you will appreciate the thought of being able to drive by in an electric car.

[Greyfox01]

05:27 PM on 01/20/2011

Maybe in another 50 years, but as long as we (our congress) allows the corruption to continue we need to get use to hanging over a barrel of crude. At $4.00 average for a gallon for regular the economic recovery will not survive, or maybe I should say reboot. Everyone need to see the movie "Formula" with Marlin Brando (Netflix). But your right we need to do something intelligent. I was looking forward to Hydrogen fuel cells myself, but the oil industies lobbyest all but kill that idea.

[loki]

11:14 AM on 12/22/2010

ITs Pump Pimpin. They raise the price by a fairly large amount, Then they lower, but never to the point it was before. This makes the consumer feel like they are getting relief, when they are actually getting reamed with higher prices. Do this month after month, and pretty soon people are paying $4 a gallon and feeling like they are doing good because its been higher in the recent past. Companies spend billions on psychology of selling, and this one seems to work well on the masses. But I guess when it comes down to it, what can we really do. Most of us need to get around, and we dont have the money to go green, and we have no way to fight the ivy greed capitalist. Freedoms in America? Yeah, our freedoms consist of do as we are told, move out, or die. Thats about the extent of our freedoms.

[userw014]

06:24 PM on 12/21/2010

If demand continues to fall, prices are going to skyrocket due to the fixed costs of the refineries and pipeline infrastructure.

[woodheat]

04:17 PM on 12/21/2010

Where's the peak oil production slide?

[jwoww]

03:25 PM on 12/21/2010

Obama Gas $3.00 per gallon and climbing but keep the moratoriums and bans on drilling.

When is Government Motors coming out with a windmill powered car?

[natey75]

11:08 AM on 12/22/2010

Drilling here isnt going to have much effect on oil prices. Oil companies controlling output and market speculators are the ones driving prices up not lack of oil. That isnt going to change even if we drill like crazy in the U.S. unless the government forced the oil companies to pump everything out to drive down prices and took it off the global market. Besides at best we only have something like 4 years worth of oil if we started drilling everything. We would be back to where we started in no time if our only policy is "drill, baby, drill".

[Jeannie Brooks]

06:08 PM on 12/28/2010

You do know, don't you, that GM had a great year, is profitable and PAID BACK the gov't loan?? Obama did pretty good with the auto company LOAN program and restructuring demands. He saved over a million jobs in the industry. Nothing to sneeze at.

The oil industry MUST improve safety - I'm not willing to accept another Deepwater disaster, and neither should you. There would be no moratorium needed if they were a responsible industry, though none of us wants to hurt jobs in that industry. They need to get their own act together.

[nothingchanges]

11:07 AM on 12/21/2010

I saw a commercial on television yesterday for a new pickup truck. It has 401 HP.

I used to own a 3 ton import commercial truck. 4 cylinder diesel, 5 speed manual transmission, with 135 HP, it got over 18 MPG loaded.

The people of the United States waste at least 1/2 of the gasoline and diesel fuel we consume, simply because the Auto manufacturers have sold us on the idea that horse power is sexy.

The most cost effective source of new energy is simply to conserve what we use until new sources can be developed. That would require a change in driving habits and perspective that apparently we are unwilling or unable to make.

Waste not Want not....................we never learn.

[Mondayboy]

06:31 AM on 12/21/2010

the prices are high because of pure speculation.

[muck-raker]

09:44 PM on 12/20/2010

The CORN Lobby has sold us a LIE: the story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQTCETdjpwE

[JASONH0099]

02:43 AM on 12/21/2010

I don't know if its as much as the corn lobby as much as greedy politicians. You only need basic science and math to figure out ethanol is a joke...

[WeThePeopleStandAs1]

03:42 AM on 12/21/2010

Yeppy...! lol you can go down into the hills of Kentucky, and them fellers can fix a batch up ..That you drink, or put it straight in your gas tank... Without paying the extra $1,500.00 to put that button on your dash, that says regular, or E-85

[WeThePeopleStandAs1]

03:49 AM on 12/21/2010

And in Wyoming we have a reserve of 1 trillion barrels of sweet crude, and 500 billion barrels of shale oil in Colorado.. 77 leases that our president shut down.. And another 600 billion barrels of shale oil in California.. I guess were waiting for the Arabs to run out of oil, before we tap it...?

[Reno Fickler]

09:14 PM on 12/20/2010

Pay attention. There are twelve times the amount of petroleum bought and sold every day than is actually consumed. Every one makes a profit. Then add Federal, State, and Local taxes.
A barrel of oil is like a can of beer. The container is worth more than the contents.
And you wonder why 'Oil Men' are so wealthy.

[Duppy]

07:17 PM on 12/20/2010

Oil price rising is such b.s. I will send a suggestion to the White House tonight to watch out for these speculators. The last time oil climbed to almost $150, it was all on speculation by traders. I will drop a note a reminder to the White House to keep an eye on these bunch of geniuses on Wall Street.

[JASONH0099]

02:52 AM on 12/21/2010

last time it was a combination of speculators and a falling dollar. this time it will be just a falling dollar. look at gold and silver prices, the feds are printing the $usd away.....