Gashostage.com

As we wade through one of the messiest global financial disasters, many people are looking to cut costs. And of course one of the highest costs for us 9-5 workers is our gas budget.

But this may change in the future. Imagine a vehicle that does 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, costs pennies per kilometer, has a 14,000 rpm redline, and is 100% electric.

What’s that you say? Electric?

Absolutely. As. in. no. gas. needed.

 

http://www.teslamotors.com/

Our hats off to Tesla for fighting the good fight against the high cost of fuel, after all, someone has to!

So the price for a barrel of oil is now down to $68. When it was $147, the prices of fuel doubled over the course a several months.

It was amazing to watch how quickly the numbers at the gas stations changed, sometimes just based on rumor. Many of our neighbors asked when the price was going to stop climbing. Many cancelled a summer vacation they were planning. Some stopped a number of non-essential subscriptions. Pretty much everyone looked for ways to lower their day to day costs. Driving less really wasn’t an option, and certaining wasn’t one that was chosen.

Our country is really based upon the idea of personal transportation. We have trains, planes, and buses, but the vast majority of the people drive everywhere – work, shopping, leisure activites. So when the price of gas went up, we cut down on other activities.

And it hurt.

Now, there is a financial situation occuring that is causing the price of oil to plummet. The price is down to the good old days.

Why has the price of fuel only dropped 15% when the cost of oil is HALVE!?!

Imagine how people are going to react when the price of oil starts going back up again…and the price of fuel rises at the same time. Really, you think the gas companies won’t use the rising price of petroleum to gouge us all again?

Time for us to demand electric cars. Not hybrids, electric. Screw the oil companies. For years they have been bleeding us dry. No pity for them.

Now to find a car company that’s not in bed with them.

Any ideas?

Oil breached 98 US dollars a barrel in Asian trade Wednesday for the first time ever, as traders anticipate another decline in US energy reserves, dealers said.
At 12:15 pm (0415 GMT), New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery traded at 97.87 dollars a barrel, up 1.17 dollars from its all-time closing record of 96.70 dollars in US trades Tuesday.

The contract had earlier traded at a new high of 98.03 dollars before falling to below 98 dollars.

Brent North Sea crude for December delivery crossed 94 dollars for the first time, rising 1.12 dollars to a new trading high of 94.38 dollars.

The dollar’s continued weakness against the euro and other major currencies was also another driver behind the run-up in crude oil prices to new peaks, dealers said.

“The dollar is falling very sharply this morning in Asia and commodities usually advance,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at CFC Seymour in Hong Kong.

“These currencies can buy more oil for the same amount when the dollar declines,” he said.

A weak US unit encourages demand for dollar-priced commodities because it makes them cheaper for buyers using stronger currencies.

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PetroChina Co. almost tripled on its first day of trading in Shanghai, becoming the world’s first company to be valued at $1 trillion, more than Exxon Mobil Corp. and General Electric Co. combined.

PetroChina shares rose to 43.96 yuan from the sale price of 16.7 yuan, giving the state-owned oil producer a greater market value than the entire Russian stock market.

The rally makes PetroChina shares four times more expensive than those of Exxon, even though China’s biggest oil producer has a quarter of the revenue. China’s stock market was valued at less than $1.1 trillion before tripling this year and giving the communist nation four of the world’s 10 biggest companies, even after today’s 5 percent tumble in Hong Kong stocks.

PetroChina’s valuation is “an indication of China coming of age and also of its stock market bubble,” said Hugh Young, who oversees $50 billion at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd. in Singapore.

The oil producer’s Shanghai listing pushes China’s stock market beyond the U.K. as the world’s third-largest. PetroChina trades at 55 times earnings, four times Exxon’s ratio of 13 times earnings and near the 58 times for Google Inc., the world’s most-used Internet search engine.

In Hong Kong, PetroChina fell 8.2 percent to HK$18. Exxon shares rose 0.7 percent to $87.93, valuing the company at $488 billion on the New York Stock Exchange.

`Sense of Responsibility’

“I feel very excited today and also feel a very strong sense of responsibility,” Chairman Jiang Jiemin said at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. “This is PetroChina returning to our investors and society.”

Jiang struck a gong as the market opened at 9:30 a.m., then toasted the start of trading with a glass of red wine.

China’s largest oil and gas producer had 20.5 billion barrels of oil and gas reserves in 2006, compared with 22.1 billion for Irving, Texas-based Exxon, data compiled by Bloomberg show. PetroChina has been adding new reserves at an average annual rate of 5 percent for the past three years, a faster pace than Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc, the world’s largest oil companies by sales.

The share sale, the world’s biggest this year, surpassed the 66.6 billion yuan raised by China Shenhua Energy Co. in September. PetroChina raised 66.8 billion yuan selling 4 billion shares last week as investors applied for more than 3.3 trillion yuan of stock, almost 50 times the amount PetroChina sold.

Record Oil

Those investors were until now prevented from directly buying PetroChina stock, missing out on a 15-fold surge as economic growth turned the nation into the largest oil consumer after the U.S. and as crude prices reached a record $96.24 a barrel in New York.

The CSI 300 Index of shares listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges has increased about 170 percent this year as mainland Chinese investors seek returns on $2.3 trillion of savings, raising investor concerns that the market is too expensive.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. sold its stake in PetroChina this year, reaping an eightfold gain that contributed to a 64 percent increase in third-quarter profit for the Omaha, Nebraska-based company. Berkshire had 2.34 billion shares as of the end of 2006, the largest holding after state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.

Buffett said on Oct. 24 that Chinese share prices have risen too fast.

`Carried Away’

“It’s easy to be carried away in the stock market when things are going very well,” he said in the northern Chinese city of Dalian. “We at Berkshire never buy stocks when we see prices soaring.”

Gains in PetroChina’s shares in Shanghai may have more to do with Chinese investors seeking better returns than the outlook for the company’s exploration and production operations, or its refining business, known as downstream, said Larry Grace, an oil analyst at Kim Eng Securities Co. in Hong Kong.

“Production is static with limited upside for the next three to four years,” Grace said. “As for the downstream, the price controls and overall regulatory trend limit the company’s earnings.”

China controls fuel prices to shield consumers in the world’s most-populous nation from accelerating inflation. The policy limits the ability of PetroChina and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. to pass on the burden of higher crude oil costs.

The other Chinese companies that rank among the world’s 10 largest by market value are China Petroleum, known as Sinopec, China Mobile Ltd., Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp.

“A-share prices don’t reflect global benchmarks of value,” said Lorraine Tan, head of equity research at Standard & Poor’s Investment Services in Singapore. “There should be other measures of a company’s position, including revenue and profitability. Market cap is not necessarily accurate.”

PetroChina’s share surge means it beat by years a Russian pledge to create the world’s largest company.

OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas export monopoly, would become the world’s largest company by market value and top $1 trillion in “seven to 10 years,” Alexander Medvedev, the company’s deputy chief executive officer, said in April. Gazprom’s market valuation today is $296 billion.

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A Senate bill to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would raise energy prices and also reduce American economic output by more than half a trillion dollars over two decades, according to a government report released on Monday.

Congress is expected to consider climate legislation this fall that would fight global warming. Many businesses worry the U.S. economy would suffer under a measure to impose tough mandatory cuts in emissions.

One proposal, introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John McCain, would gradually reduce total U.S. emissions by the year 2050 to 60 percent below 1990 levels.

The bill would require companies to report their yearly greenhouse gas emissions and submit a matching number of government-issued allowances to equal the emissions spewed. Companies that emit more would have to buy allowances from cleaner companies that produce fewer emissions.

However, the proposal would cut into the U.S. economy and raise gasoline and other energy prices paid by consumers, according to an analysis of the legislation by the Energy Information Administration.

The legislation “increases the cost of using energy, which reduces real economic output, reduces purchasing power, and lowers aggregate demand for goods and services,” the EIA said.

With companies trying to meet the shrinking emissions levels, U.S. economic output would be $533 billion lower over the 2009 to 2030 time period, the agency said.

In the transportation sector, gasoline and other petroleum products would cost more as oil refiners buy allowances to cover the emissions spewed by their facilities.

“The cost of the allowances will be included in the prices of the fuels,” the EIA said.

Gasoline prices are forecast to be 23 cents a gallon higher in 2020 and 41 cents more in 2030 because of the required emission cuts, the agency said.

The EIA said the fuel price increases would not be large enough “to create dramatic shifts in consumer behavior,” but there would be more demand for fuel efficient vehicles.

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Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the House on Saturday approved $16 billion in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and conservation efforts.

Republican opponents said the legislation ignored the need to produce more domestic oil, natural gas and coal. One GOP lawmaker bemoaned “the pure venom … against the oil and gas industry.”

The House passed the tax provisions by a vote of 221-189. Earlier it had approved, 241-172, a companion energy package aimed at boosting energy efficiency and expanding use of biofuels, wind power and other renewable energy sources.

“We are turning to the future,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The two bills, passed at an unusual Saturday session as lawmakers prepared to leave town for their monthlong summer recess, will be merged with legislation passed by the Senate in June.

On one of the most contentious and heavily lobbied issues, the House voted to require investor-owned electric utilities nationwide to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind or biofuels.

The utilities and business interests had argued aggressively against the federal renewables mandate, saying it would raise electricity prices in regions of the country that do not have abundant wind energy. But environmentalists said the requirement will spur investments in renewable fuels and help address global warming as utilities use less coal.

“This will save consumers money,” said Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., the provision’s co-sponsor, maintaining utilities will have to use less high-priced natural gas. He noted that nearly half the states already have a renewable energy mandate for utilities, and if utilities can’t find enough renewable they can meet part of the requirement through power conservation measures.

The bill also calls for more stringent energy efficiency standards for appliances and lighting and incentives for building more energy-efficient “green” buildings. It would authorize special bonds for cities and counties to reduce energy demand.

Pelosi, D-Calif., said it was essential to commit to renewable energy while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Doing so, she said, will help address global warming and make the country more energy-independent.

“It’s about our children, about our future, the world in which they live,” Pelosi said.

Democrats avoided a nasty fight by ignoring – at least for the time being – calls for automakers to make vehicles more fuel-efficient. Cars, sport utility vehicles and small trucks use most of the country’s oil and produce almost one-third of the carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming.

That issue, as well as whether to require huge increases in the use of corn-based ethanol as a substitute for gasoline, were left to be thrashed out when the House bill is merged with energy legislation the Senate passed in June.

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Russian explorers readied for a historic descent to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole on Wednesday as part of an expedition to claim the area for Russia, expedition organisers said.
Two Russian ships carrying the explorers, a research vessel and a nuclear ice-breaker were due to reach by 1600 GMT the site from which two mini-submarines will make the descent, they said in a statement.

“The dive is due to happen on Wednesday night,” said Sergei Bolyasnikov, an official at the Arctic and Antarctic Institute in Saint Petersburg, which is organizing the mission.

The dive is believed to be the first of its kind and is part of an epic voyage that aims to advance Russian claims to a swathe of Arctic seabed thought to be rich in oil and gas.

Two Mir mini-submarines were to take the explorers, led by parliament member Artur Chilingarov, to a depth of around 4,200 metres (14,000 feet) to the seabed, where they will carry out scientific tests and deposit a Russian flag.

“Having your feet reach such a depth is like taking the first step on the moon,” Chilingarov, a veteran Arctic explorer, was quoted as saying in an interview with RIA Novosti news agency.

“The Arctic-2007 mission should become a landmark in Russia’s mastery of the North Pole,” the Novye Izvestia daily wrote Wednesday. “There is already serious talk of a new Cold War.”

Russian media reports suggested a US expedition that set off from Norway on July 1 to study another part of the Arctic seabed, the Gakkel Ridge, was part of a race between Moscow and Washington for the Arctic’s mineral riches.

But the US expedition’s robotic vehicles were to hunt for “life and hydrothermal vents on the Arctic seafloor,” said the website of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which was organising the voyage.

The Russian expedition, which set off on July 24 from the northern Russian port of Murmansk, hopes to establish that a section of seabed passing through the North Pole is in fact an extension of Russia’s landmass.

There is growing international rivalry in the region as energy reserves grow scarce in other parts of the world and the melting of the polar ice caps makes the area more accessible for research and economic activity.

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Oil prices retreated after jumping to a new record Wednesday on the government’s report of a steep drop in crude inventories and surge in refinery activity.
Crude prices initially rose after the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reported that oil inventories fell by 6.5 million barrels last week, far more than expected. But gas futures fell on word that refiners ramped up their operations much quicker than expected. As the slide in gas futures prices accelerated, oil prices had little choice but to follow, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

“The refineries have finally gotten their act together,” Flynn said. “They’re back to normal, almost.”

As the industry rebounds from a spring and early summer in which refiners experienced an unusual number of outages, it is drawing down crude inventories that had hit 9-year highs. Some investors see that draw as a sign crude inventories are tightening.

“That’s going to keep the (crude) market underpinned for now,” Flynn said.

But traders also remember last summer, when oil prices plummeted by almost $20 in a little over a month after hitting record highs.

“Oil does have a tendency to peak in late summer,” Flynn said. “Seasonally-speaking, this bull market’s on borrowed time.”

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $1.30 to $76.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $78.77 earlier. That surpasses the previous intraday record of $78.40, set in July 2006.

On the other side of the petroleum supply chain, refineries are producing more gasoline. That news sent September gasoline futures down 7.97 cents to $2.0262 a gallon on the Nymex.

Retail prices typically lag the futures market, and prices at the pump fell by 0.9 cent overnight to a national average of $2.867 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices peaked at $3.227 a gallon in late May. Gas futures have fallen steeply in recent weeks as refineries have ramped up operations.

Refineries are also churning out more distillates, including heating oil. Nymex heating oil futures fell by 5.01cents to $2.0731 a gallon.

Nymex natural gas futures gained 21.5 cents to $6.406 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, September Brent crude fell $1.51 to $75.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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The FBI and IRS have searched the home of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens in a ski resort in Alaska as part of an investigation into his links with an oil-services company, officials said on Monday.

“The FBI and IRS are conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Girdwood, Alaska,” an FBI spokesman said in Washington, but gave no further details.

The Alaskan politician, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, issued a statement saying: “My attorneys were advised this morning that federal agents wished to search my home in Girdwood in connection with an ongoing investigation.

“I continue to believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence the outcome,” the statement said.

Girdwood is about 40 miles south of Anchorage, the state’s largest city.

Stevens is the subject of a grand-jury investigation into his links with managers of VECO Corp., the state’s largest oil-services company, as well as numerous unrelated fisheries matters.

In May, Bill Allen, then the chief executive of VECO, along with a vice president, Rick Smith, pleaded guilty to several federal corruption charges. The two admitted paying over $400,000 to bribe Alaska lawmakers.

Allen had been a financial supporter of Stevens’ campaigns and a partner with him on a race horse. He also oversaw the a project to remodel Stevens’ Girdwood home in 2000, vetting bills and construction work.

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Oil prices closed over $77 a barrel, near an all-time high on Friday on technical buying and news of faster-than-expected economic growth.
At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices fell to their lowest level since late May.

The Commerce Department said Friday the economy as measured by the gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the second quarter, removing some of the concerns about economic growth that sent oil prices down Thursday in sympathy with Wall Street’s plunge.

But some analysts discounted the economic growth numbers as a factor in Friday’s rally, noting that the government data was released hours before prices took off. Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Ill., said technical buying by large investment funds — or predetermined decisions to buy when prices reach certain levels — fueled Friday’s price surge.

“We’ve got a highly charged market here, and it doesn’t take much of a headline to spark a 5 percent price move,” said Ritterbusch.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose $2.07 to settle at $77.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The highest-ever settlement price for a front-month contract was $77.03 a barrel, set July 14, 2006. Reflecting how volatile trading in oil futures has been, oil ended the week up only $1.45 a barrel, or 1.9 percent, despite rising more than $2 a barrel on two separate days.

Concerns about lower economic growth drove Thursday’s sell-off on Wall Street, when the Dow Jones industrials closed down more than 310 points, analysts said. Oil prices fell 93 cents on Thursday in sympathy with the stock market, analysts said.

Oil’s rally pulled the rest of the energy complex higher on Friday. August gasoline rose 2.58 cents to settle at $2.1017 a gallon after falling earlier. Gasoline futures end the week 6.26 cents, or 2.9 percent, lower.

Meanwhile, the average national price of a gallon of gas fell 1.5 cents overnight to $2.92, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Retail prices, which typically lag the futures market, are at their lowest point since peaking at $3.227 a gallon in late May.

Gasoline futures and retail prices have declined in recent weeks as investors have come around to a view that the refining industry is finally producing enough gas to meet demand after a spring in which the industry was hampered by an unusual number of unexpected outages.

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