A Brief History of Gasoline Consumption in America

Salon.com has a great cartoon that shows the American viewpoint of how cheap gas has influence our vehicle purchasing behavior. The cartoon is predictably true and shows following the 1970s when gas was expensive, rationed and proven bad for the environment; we switched to larger fuel inefficient vehicles because of the price of gasoline. This chart here shows that vehicle fuel efficiency jumped in the late 1970s but totally plateaued as many didn't feel it necessary to conserve a finite source of energy. We suffer now because we are dependent on gasoline, oil and natural gas and weening ourself off of these resources will take decades.