San Francisco

THE US is producing the most oil in 31 years, economic growth is picking up and crude prices are plunging. So why is Americans' use of petroleum waning?

As the US moves closer and closer to energy independence, greater fuel efficiency, changing demographics and an increase in renewables are altering the dynamic that in the past would have seen demand for petrol climbing. Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the US, grew at a 2.4 per cent pace in the third quarter from the year-earlier period. Oil consumption fell 0.3 per cent, government data show.