In the U.S., gasoline typically refers to the fuel used in internal combustion engines, including methanol and ethanol. In 2016, approximately 233 million barrels of finished motor gasoline were exported out of the U.S., while total U.S. petroleum imports for that year amounted to a daily average of about 10 million barrels of petroleum. The U.S. transportation sector accounted for 71.4 percent of the country’s total petroleum demand in 2016 and accounts for the vast majority of domestic demand for refined petroleum products in the U.S. As of 2015, the overall domestic demand for gasoline in the U.S. amounted to over 140 billion gallons.
The U.S. government currently provides major subsidies to domestic gasoline production at virtually every stage of exploration and production. In 2016, the oil and gas extraction industry grossed over 200 billion U.S. dollars while the gross output of the U.S. gas station industry was more than 94 billion U.S. dollars. As of October 2017, the price for one liter of regular unleaded gasoline in the U.S. was 66.2 U.S. cents.
The growing concerns for the environmental impact of fuel exploration and future shortages have led to the supplemental use of biofuels such as ethanol. U.S. biofuel production has continued on a steady growth rate since the start of the 21st century. As of 2016, the U.S. ethanol industry has created over 74 thousand jobs.
