by Calculated Risk on 3/31/2010 06:55:00 PM

From David Baker at the San Francisco Chronicle: State gas usage falls for 4th straight year

Driven lower by high prices and the recession, gasoline sales in California fell for the fourth year in a row during 2009, state officials reported Tuesday.
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Annual gas sales in California peaked at 15.9 billion gallons in 2005 and have tumbled 7 percent since then.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the percent change of taxable gallons of gasoline compared to the same quarter of the prior year.

In addition to gasoline usage being down for four straight years, driven by higher prices and then the recession, usage turned down again in Q4 2009 - probably because prices are up over $3 per gallon again.