Ticker, June 21

Rocky Mountain News

Published June 20, 2008 at midnight

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THE YEAR IN FUEL

2007 . . . was the first year since 1980 that total miles driven in the U.S. declined when compared with the year before, according to marketing service NPD Group.

. . . could prove to have been the peak year for U.S. gasoline demand. It will likely decline in 2008 for the first time in 17 years if petroleum prices stay at or near their current levels.

. . . was the year Americans bought more Toyota Prius hybrids than they did Ford Explorers, which was the best- selling sport utility vehicle in the U.S. for more than a decade. Hybrid sales increased by more than a third from 2006 to 2007.

FEEL IT YET?

$4.20 per gallon - not far from current levels - is the projected "pain point" - at which gas prices would cause as much economic pain as they did during the 1980s. Increases in real income over the past 30 years have prevented that thus far.

Cambridge Energy Research Associates

DRIVING LESS

1.4 billion fewer highway miles driven by Americans in April compared with the same month last year, and 400 million fewer than in March

U.S. Department of Transportation

DOWNGRADING

8% of gasoline sales last month went to premium, down from 16 percent in 1997.

U.S. Energy Information Administration

282 The number of new models this year that manufacturers say should use high octane - mostly luxury and high-performance - up from from 166 in 2002.

Kelley Blue Book

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