Drivers curb use as gas goes up

Americans have cut back gasoline use in apparent response to increasing prices, separate surveys by the government and a petroleum trade organization showed Wednesday.

Gas use last month was 0.6% less than a year ago, the American Petroleum Institute reported, because “high fuel prices have led to decreased demand for gasoline and other refined oil products.”

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said gasoline use the past four weeks was up a slight 0.6% vs. a year ago. Typical is an increase of 1.5%, and that’s the growth rate assumed in many industry, analyst and government forecasts.

Cutting back just a little more could cause gasoline prices