[thackney]

If these are U.S. retail gasoline sales numbers reported by refineries

Those are not total sales. That is a small portion of total sales, only counting finished motor gasoline sold direct from the refinery. Most refinery volumes are blending components for gasoline with a local blender making the final product for sale.

Total gasoline sales have only dipped a little from the peak of 9.6 million barrels per day in 2007, down to 9.0 million barrels per day peak this past summer.

Zoomed in for greater detail:

Data source:
U.S. Product Supplied of Finished Motor Gasoline
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MGFUPUS2&f=M

[Zhang Fei]

Thanks for the clarification and charts. I got the original link from someone else and thought it was a real head scratcher.