America is the world's most power-hungry nation, and fossil fuels have been our preferred power source for a century or more. Given current trends, that might not be the case a century from now -- but there's no doubt we still burn plenty of dead dinosaurs to get around.
There are several ways of calculating how much Americans spend on gasoline every year, but you can get a pretty good estimate according to how much gas we use in a year, and the number of people out there. Using this method, the AAA figured out in 2012 that the average American goes through about 533 gallons of gas a year in the course of driving an average 12,000 miles a year. As of June, 2014, the average nationwide price of fuel is $3.67 a gallon. So, assuming American's are still using the same amount we did in 2012, then the average person pays about $1,956 for gasoline.
That's a lot, but here's the good news: It's down about 6 percent from America's record high in 2007, just before the economy imploded. But a 6 percent drop in five years is still pretty respectable.
