Cody, our intrepid brass intern, hit me up the other week with a stat find that completely floored me. At 20 billion gallons of gas and diesel a year, the state of California consumes more gasoline than all of China. "That can't be right," I blurted out. But indeed it is, according to Wired. With China's rapid growth, it's estimated to outstrip California's consumption by the end of the year. Beijing alone adds 1,000 new cars to its roads every day according to the Associated Press. Note: this number doesn't apply during the Olympics going on now, but will pick up again once the games have concluded. But for now the fact holds true--California (and thus the U.S. as a whole) still guzzles the most. Wow. As far as consumption and economics go, California is huge any way you look at it. If it were to break off from the rest of the U.S., it'd still have the eighth-largest economy in the world. With 37 million residents and an average commute time  hovering between 24 to 30 minutes (with some folks driving much longer) that's a whole lot of gas guzzling. Anyway, the next time you see a news report attributing the rising cost of commodities to developing nations, just remember--we're still the biggest consumers in the world, more than many of us know or (like me) want to believe. -- Peter