I may have missed that positive news report about oil and gasoline, can somebody fill me in ?

Well, there was the new Expedition commercial that touted how fast one could load the family + luggage for an "outing" whilst their hapless neighbors were still packing/cramming their minivan.

If one looked at the marginal cost of operation between an Expedition and a minivan, the cost of that time saved should be well in excess of $10,000/hour.

And of course, Hummers were explicitly designed to appeal to the reptile brain, which operates under different demand curves (eat or be eaten).

Let us not forget the mother who dropped off Johnny at a new school in a Hummer and the other kids muttered "How cool" as Johnny confidently strode in the school door with his Hummer status.

Such is the power of advertising.

Best Hopes for Mammal Brain Thinking,

Alan

MTBE-free gasoline just tastes better! But seriously, population growth, economic growth, and growing numbers of automobiles/trucks/etc all act to shift the aggregate demand curve. That would account for higher prices with higher demand, especially if the supply curve is steep (relatively inelastic). As long as supply grows, we shouldn't expect to see "demand destruction" in the aggregate, because we have been seeing demand growth pushing up prices. Aggregate demand destruction comes (has come, will come?) with shrinking supply, and we will know it when we see it, because consumption will be lower and prices will be moooocho higher. Unless b.cole is right.....hah.