Stations running near empty

Instead of giving up an arm and a leg at the pump, many consumers are reacting to rising gas prices with a shift toward gas conservation and possibly toward smaller vehicles, experts say.

"We are down in round numbers from where we were last year," said Ed Erickson, economics professor at N.C. State University, referring to the nation's gas consumption.

Erickson said that the two recent Gulf Coast hurricanes have not had a major effect on gas consumption but that the steady rise in prices during the last year have made an impact.

Kim Hill, assistant director of the economic and business group of the Center for Automotive Research, said there was a correlation between increasing gas prices and a change in the vehicle fleet away from sport utility vehicles.

But it is unclear if gas prices are causing the shift, he said.

"It's hard to tell what's actually going on," Hill said. "There has been a drop-off in large SUVs."

He said the shift away from larger trucks might be due to increasing gas prices, or it might be due to consumers' frustration with larger automobiles.

Erickson said that gas conservation is a pocketbook issue and that people are choosing to drive more efficient vehicles because they are more cost-effective.

Catherine Wolfram, a professor of business administration at the University of California-Berkeley, said fuel consumption had begun to decrease in August when prices began to rise. And there was a larger drop in consumption after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Any shift in the fleet will be small because not everyone can go out and purchase a new fuel-efficient vehicle, she said.

In a press conference Monday, President Bush suggested citizens conserve gas by not taking needless trips.

"We can all pitch in - by being better conservers of energy," he said. "If it makes sense for the citizen out there to curtail nonessential travel, it darn sure makes sense for federal employees."

Even with the president's appeal, any shift to using more efficient vehicles will be a long-term trend, Erickson said.

He said the president can try to encourage conservation, but the main pressure will come from the grassroots level.

"The real push for conservation will come from the bottom up," he said.

Hill said it was hollow of the president to suggest that people drive less.

"It's easy to say, but hard to do," he said, explaining that people often don't have many options because of where they live and work.

Still, he said, consumers today have more options than they did during previous energy crunches.

During the gas shortages of the 1970s, there were not many compact, efficient cars to purchase, and imports were not fully available, Hill said.

"Now there is a total range of small, gas-efficient cars," he said. "We have a wide variety of choices."

 

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