Amazing Stat: California Uses More Gas than China

Given all the news coverage about the rise of the Chinese economy, you could be forgiven for thinking that the world's most populous country is hogging all the world's resources, while the developed nations are fighting for scraps.

But, at least with transportation fuel, you'd be wrong. California alone uses more gasoline than any country in the world (except the US as a whole, of course). That means California's 20 billion gallon gasoline and diesel habit is greater than China's! (Or Russia's. Or India's. Or Brazil's. Or Germany's.)

That's according to the California Energy Commission's State Alternative Fuels Plan, which was posted online last Christmas Eve (pdf). The whole report makes for some fascinating reading because it's a blueprint for a low-carbon and renewable transportation fuel future. The dominant takeaway: it ain't going to be easy.

One more choice statistic: gasoline usage in California has increased 50 percent, that's 6.7 billion gallons, since 1988. Has there been anything close to a commensurate increase in quality of life here to accompany that rise in energy use?

But China's oil thirst is growing -- to almost 20 billion gallons in 2007 -- and perhaps as early as this year, China's 1.3 billion people will overtake California's 37 million people in total gasoline and diesel usage.

不可思议：加州用的汽油比中国的多

    加州消耗的汽油要比世界上其他任何一个国家都要多（当然不包括美国本身）。那意味着加州200亿加仑的汽油和柴油用量比中国的还要多！（比俄罗斯的多，比印度的多，比巴西的多，比德国的也多……）这个结论是根据加州能源委员会的一个叫石油替代计划得出的，并且在去年除夕夜在网上公布。整篇报告颇具吸引力因为这是未来低碳和可持续性运输燃料的蓝图。这是个很不错的上杆：不过这也不会容易。

    另外一个统计数据表明：加州的汽油用量自从1988年开始提高了百分之五十，准确的说，是67亿加仑。在基本生活条件中，还有其他任何东西能和这个的能源消耗相比吗？

    但是中国对石油的渴求在增长，07年几乎到了200亿加仑，并且可能早在今年，中国的13亿人将会在石油和柴油用量上超过加州三千七百万人。