美国国家公共电台 NPR U.S. Gasoline Use Hits A Record, But That May Not Last

U.S. Gasoline Use Hits A Record, But That May Not Last  

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Americans are driving a lot more these days, to be specific - 280 billion miles in June. The Federal Highway Administration says that's up 3 percent from the year before. We have two reports now on some of the effects of this increased driving. First, the fact that drivers are burning more gasoline. NPR's Jeff Brady starts us off and reports the country will likely set a new record for gasoline consumption this year.

JEFF BRADY, BYLINE²: At Valley Forge National Historical Park outside Philadelphia, the parking lot has cars from all over - Tennessee, New York, Nebraska. It's a good place to find people on a road trip because of low gas prices. Roberta Tower is turning a crank to lower her travel trailer onto the hitch³ of her SUV. She's from Seattle and is three months into a cross-country trip.

ROBERTA TOWER: Because the gasoline prices have been so low this summer, I've been able to go a lot further and see a lot more than I had initially⁴ thought I would be able to.

BRADY: Heading into the Labor⁵ Day weekend, regular gas is selling for a national average of about $2.20 a gallon. That's 40 percent less than two summers ago.

TOWER: I've met a lot of people on the road who were doing the same thing I'm doing.

BRADY: And that's showing up in statistics. In June, U.S. drivers burned more than 405 million gallons of gasoline a day.

TOM KLOZA: That's an all-time record. That shatters the record established a couple years ago.

BRADY: Tom Kloza with the Oil Price Information Service says that's a surprise to a lot of people who follow the gasoline market. Even the oil industry thought demand had peaked back in 2007 and would only go down from now on. Back then, it was the Great Recession and higher gas prices responsible. Today, more efficient cars and changing driving habits were supposed to continue the downward trend. But then the economy improved and gas prices fell. Now Kloza says the U.S. is on track to also break the annual record for gas consumption.

KLOZA: But I don't necessarily think that's something to cheer about because some of the reasons that we're breaking it have to do with people making, perhaps, poor choices in what kind of vehicles they're going to use.

BRADY: Kloza says people are buying SUVs and bigger cars again. But now even those vehicles are going to get more efficient, and that means gas consumption will start declining again. Joanne Shore is chief industry analyst⁶ at the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. She says government regulations require new cars to be even more efficient.

JOANNE SHORE: So while we'll be driving more - more people driving - we will be using less fuel.

BRADY: There are still some questions about how fast that decline will happen. For example, many in the millennial⁷ generation have shown little interest in owning cars up to now, but Shore says that could change.

SHORE: I think people will be watching whether or not they will fall into lifestyles that some of the older generations typified, which is moving to the suburbs, having children and continuing to drive.

BRADY: Shore says there are some other wildcards out there - things like driverless cars and ride-booking services such as Uber. They discourage car ownership, and that makes predicting gasoline consumption years from now difficult. In any case, she's confident that the peak years of gas consumption are about to become history. Jeff Brady, NPR News, Philadelphia.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 hitch   

v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉

参考例句：

• They had an eighty-mile journey and decided to hitch hike.他们要走80英里的路程，最后决定搭便车。
• All the candidates are able to answer the questions without any hitch.所有报考者都能对答如流。

4 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 millennial   

一千年的，千福年的

参考例句：

• Both Russia and America looked to the future to fulfill their millennial expectations. 俄国和美国都把实现他们黄金时代的希望寄托于未来。
• The millennial generation is celebrating the global commons every day, apparently unmindful of Hardin's warning. 千禧一代显然对哈丁的警告不以为然，每天都在颂扬全球“公地”。