In an article in the December 1994 Scientific American magazine, the authors estimated future gas use. Without a change in U.S. policy, auto fuel use is forecasted to rise along the projection shown at the right in the figure below. The shaded band predicts gas use if the technologies for increased fuel economy are phased in by the year 2010. The moderate estimate (center curve) corresponds to an average of 46 mpg for all cars on the road.

a. Discuss the interpretation of the shaded area and other regions of the graph that pertain to the topic in this section.

b. According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. gasoline consumption in 2010 was 9,030,000 barrels per day. Discuss how this affects the areas considered in part a.

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U.S. gasoline consumption (millions of barrels per day) 8 7 Projection based on current trends Projections based on more fuel-efficient cars -Moderate redesign Radical redesign 4 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010