WITHOUT GOVERNMENT MANDATES: Report: Americans using 8% less gasoline than 2006 peak, will never go up again. “Before environmentalists get too excited, though, the falling trend of gasoline usage only applies to the United States. This is good, because the U.S. is still, by far, the world’s largest consumer of oil. The trouble is that demand from emerging countries, especially China and India, will more than make up for the declining usage in the U.S., leading to an expected record of 88.3 million barrels of oil produced in 2011.”