For the first time in a year, Californians consumed more gasoline in a month than they had during the same period a year earlier, according to the State's Board of Equalization.
It happened in February, which is the Equalization Board's most recent full month of statistics. California gasoline consumption rose 2.1% that month, to more than 1.15 billion gallons, compared with the same month in 2011. Board officials said that the end of the streak was significant.
For one thing, California as a state had led the nation in reducing the amount of gasoline it was using, even though it added 1.8 million licensed drivers between 2002 and 2012, according to statistics from the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.
Board officials chose to emphasize a different point. The increase in gas consumption came in spite of the fact that gasoline prices in the state reached an average of $4.03 a gallon in February, which was 12.6% higher than a year earlier.
Equalization Board Chairman Jerome E. Horton said that the increase in gasoline used despite the price spike “could be a sign that economic activity is picking up and California's economy is improving."
Horton added that there were other positive signs about the state's economy, noting that "non-agricultural and manufacturing employment has increased over the same period last year and the unemployment rate is decreasing, as well as the average number of weeks of claimed unemployment benefits.â€
In California, diesel fuel prices were also up sharply compared with 2011, up 11.8% in February to an average of $4.25 a gallon. But the state's diesel consumption also rose in February compared with a year earlier, up 4.3% to 184.1 million gallons.
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