Energy Center Missouri's Total Bill for Transportation

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Missouri’s Total Bill for Transportation

Fuels at a Glance

Missouri’s Total Bill for Transportation Fuels, 1999

Missouri’s transportation sector relies almost exclusively on petroleum fuels. In 1999, Missouri expenditures for energy use in the transportation sector totaled about $4.9 billion. About 99.9 percent of this total was spent for petroleum fuels.
Transportation is also the main end use for petroleum in Missouri and accounts for about 84 percent of the state’s total expenditures for petroleum.
As the pie chart indicates, three fuels –gasoline, diesel and jet fuel --account for about 98 percent of Missouri’s transportation energy bill.
In 1999, Missouri ranked ninth among all states in expenditures for highway diesel fuel, twelfth in expenditures for jet fuel and seventeenth in expenditures for motor gasoline.
Per capita expenditures for gasoline in 1999 were $562, about 7 percent higher than the national average of $524.
Per capita expenditures for diesel fuel in 1999 were nearly 60 percent higher than the national average. The level of expenditures reflects Missouri’s central location with respect to national and regional trucking, barge and train routes. It should be recognized that these expenditures include sales to commercial transportation companies or independent truckers that are not necessarily based in Missouri.

Increases in Missouri’s Total Bill for Transportation Fuels, 1990-1999

Transportation sector expenditures for these three fuels – gasoline, diesel and natural gas -- increased by 25 percent between 1990-1999, an average annual growth rate of about 2.5 percent.
Consumption grew faster than expenditures during the 1990s, increasing by nearly 30 percent. Expenditures did not increase as much as consumption because the average price of transportation fuels in Missouri decreased by about 4.5 percent during the period.
Gasoline expenditures in Missouri grew at an annual average rate of 1.1 percent during the 1990s, increasing from about $2.9 billion to $3.2 billion over the period. This rate of growth was somewhat slower than the U.S. average. However, these differences were marginal. As the three line charts illustrate, the general patterns of growth in gasoline consumption, price and revenue that occurred in Missouri during the 1990s closely mirrored those that occurred in the U.S. as a whole.
Expenditures for the other major transportation fuels grew at a much faster pace, outstripping growth in the U.S. as a whole. Expenditures for diesel fuel increased in Missouri at an average annual rate of 6.6 percent, fourth fastest among the states. Expenditures for jet fuel in the state increased at an annual average rate of 3.8 percent whereas they decreased in the U.S. as a whole. As noted earlier, some of the expenditures included in the jet fuel and diesel data were not necessarily expenditures by Missourians even though they took place within Missouri’s borders
Throughout the year, the Energy Center surveys a sample of gasoline and diesel retailers around the state and reports price information in bimonthly Energy Bulletins.