State consumption of gasoline rises

Californians used slightly more gasoline in January than they did in in the same month last year, an increase that came after two straight months of declines and took some of the shine off the state’s 2006 decline in consumption -- its first in decades.

Motorists here bought nearly 1.29 billion gallons of gas during January, up 0.26% from the year-earlier period, the California Board of Equalization said.

-- Elizabeth Douglass