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The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline on Monday slipped two-tenths of a penny to $3.927 since Sunday, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. A separate weekly survey by the Energy Department yielded similar results.
The painful rise of gasoline prices across the U.S. may have reached its end, according to two national surveys.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline on Monday slipped two-tenths of a penny to $3.927 since Sunday, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report, which uses prices compiled from more than 100,000 retail outlets by the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.
Prices fell in all but one of the 23 states with per-gallon averages of $3.90 or above, according to AAA. Two of those 23 states — Michigan and Indiana — saw prices drop below $4 a gallon, reducing the number of states above $4 to eight. In California, the state where prices first began to drop, the average fell to $4.264 a gallon.
A separate weekly survey by the Energy Department yielded similar results, with a 0.2-cent decline in the national average to $3.939 for a gallon of regular. California drivers got a 4.2-cent price break, to an average of $4.28 a gallon.
“Gasoline prices in the hardest-hit areas have finally shown signs of relief, with prices falling now in Chicago as they have for a few weeks in California,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, which tracks gasoline prices.
Independent fuel price analyst Bob van der Valk said that if the nation can get through the summer months without major hurricane damage and without a new military conflict in the Middle East, “we should see the average price for gasoline in the U.S. drop back down to under $3 per gallon.”
The West and East coasts continued to have the most expensive gasoline in the 48 contiguous states, the Energy Department said, with averages of $4.203 and
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States where drivers pay the least for gasoline
In fact, they’ve declined to lows not seen in months. Concerns of yet another global recession have caused oil prices to drop, and with them, gas prices. In the U.S., prices of regular unleaded gasoline have fallen more than 50 cents per gallon since May, when the cost hovered near $4.00. Still, gas prices vary widely between states — from $4.24 a gallon in Hawaii to $3.13 in Missouri, according to AAA. 24/7 Wall St. set out to find the states with the lowest gas prices and the possible reasons behind them.
Fuel has dropped by nearly a cent every day for the past four weeks, the New York Times reports. In some regions, they have even fallen below $3.00 per gallon. Several factors affect gas prices depending on the state, but the main ones are gas taxes, the presence of nearby refineries, and what the people of the state can afford.
The Tax Foundation reports that some states, including California and New York, have gas tax rates of nearly 50 cents per gallon. Other states, including South Carolina and Oklahoma, have a tax of less than 20 cents. while there are some exceptions, notably Indiana, most of the states with low gas tax rates also have low gas prices.
The presence of refineries within the state also appears to have a significant impact on gas prices. Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana are home to the vast majority of the nation’s fuel processing plants, and prices are notably lower in these states, possibly due to lower transportation costs. The exception to this rule is California, which has the second most refineries in the country, but also has one of the highest average gas prices of $3.82. This is likely due in part to its gas tax rate, which is the highest in the country.
The final factor affecting state and regional gas prices is how much people can afford to pay. There is a high correlation between states with low median household incomes and states with low gas prices. The prices residents can afford to pay, in turn, affects the state’s cost of living.
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 Wave of the future renewable energy! Renewable energy will be the fastest-growing source of energy throughout the world over the next 28 years, helping to meet a projected 49% increase in world energy use, according to DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA released the highlights of its International Energy Outlook 2010 on May 25, and the reference case, sometimes referred to as the “business-as-usual” case, forecasts continued rapid growth in energy use in developing countries through 2035. China and India accounted for 20% of global energy use in 2007, but the EIA expects their consumption to more than double by 2035, at which time they will account for 30% of world energy use.
In general, the EIA reference case does not forecast a strong shift to clean energy throughout the world. While renewable power generation increases the fastest, at 3% per year, coal-fired power will also continue to increase, at a rate of 2.3% per year. The EIA report sees petroleum and liquid fuels remaining as the world’s largest energy source through 2035, while natural gas consumption increases by 1.3% per year. As a result, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rise from 29.7 billion metric tons in 2007 to 42.4 billion metric tons in 2035, an increase of 43%. And while the reference case expects oil prices to reach $133 per barrel in 2035, even the EIA’s “high oil price” case dampens the energy growth only slightly, yielding a 46% increase by 2035. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions still end up at 41.1 billion metric tons in 2035, an increase of 38%. See the EIA press release and the report highlights.
Credit: reverseenergy.com
Source:EIA
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The 316 birds found dead along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida — plus 10 others that died or were euthanized at wildlife rehabilitation centers after they were captured alive, far outnumber the 31 surviving birds found oiled to date.
The raw tally of birds listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as dead on arrival at wildlife collection facilities include specimens obviously tainted with oil and some with no visible signs of oil contamination.
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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) today released an initial study assessing the operational impacts and economics of increased contributions from wind and solar energy producers on the power grid. The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study examines the benefits and challenges of integrating enough wind and solar energy capacity into the grid to produce 35 percent of its electricity< --more-->
by 2017. The study finds that this target is technically feasible and does not necessitate extensive additional infrastructure, but does require key changes to current operational practice. The results offer a first look at the issue of adding significant amount of variable renewable energy in the West and will help utilities across the region plan how to ramp up their production of renewable energy as they incorporate more wind and solar energy plants into the power grid.
“If key changes can be made to standard operating procedures, our research shows that large amounts of wind and solar can be incorporated onto the grid without a lot of backup generation,” said Dr. Debra Lew, NREL project manager for the study. “When you coordinate the operations between utilities across a large geographic area, you decrease the effect of the variability of wind and solar energy sources, mitigating the unpredictability of Mother Nature.”
The study focuses on the operational impacts of wind, photovoltaics, and concentrating solar power on the power system operated by the WestConnect group of utilities in the mountain and southwest states. WestConnect is a group of transmission providers, which includes Arizona Public Service, El Paso Electric Co., NV Energy, Public Service of New Mexico, Salt River Project, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Cooperative, Tucson Electric Power, Western Area Power Administration, and Xcel Energy. Though wind and solar output vary over time, the technical analysis performed in this study shows that it is operationally possible to accommodate 30 percent wind and 5 percent solar energy penetration. To accomplish such an increase, utilities will have to substantially increase their coordination of operations over wider geographic areas and schedule their generation deliveries, or sales, on a more frequent basis. Currently generators provide a schedule for a specific amount of power they will provide in the next hour. More frequent scheduling would allow generators to adjust that amount of power based on changes in system conditions such as increases or decreases in wind or solar generation.
The study also finds that if utilities generate 27 percent of their electricity from wind and solar energy across the Western Interconnection grid, it would lower carbon emissions by 25 to 45 percent. It would also decrease fuel and emissions costs by 40 percent, depending on the future price of natural gas.
Other key findings from the study include:
- Existing transmission capacity can be more fully utilized to reduce the amount of new transmission that needs to be built.
- To facilitate the integration of wind and solar energy, coordinating the operations of utilities can provide substantial savings by reducing the need for additional back-up generation, such as natural gas-burning plants.
- Use of wind and solar forecasts in utility operations to predict when and where it will be windy and sunny is essential for cost-effectively integrating these renewable energy sources.
The study was undertaken by a team of wind, solar and power systems experts across both the private and public sectors. The study complements the recently released Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study, which examines the feasibility of integrating up to 30 percent wind in the eastern states.
The report released today is an important first step in assessing the impact of solar and wind energy on the electrical grid. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Department of Energy is investing more than $26 million to further study the Western transmission interconnection, which will help states, utilities, and grid operators prepare for future growth in energy demand, renewable energy resources, and Smart Grid technologies.
The study can be downloaded at http://www.nrel.gov/wwsis. A media webinar will be held on May 20, 2010. For details, please contact Richard Sawyers at rsawyers@kearnswest.com.
NREL is DOE’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated by DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
### Click Here to Continue reading NREL Study Shows Power Grid can Accommodate Large Increase in Wind and Solar Generation
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in partnership with several states and utilities, announced on May 5 a new Energy Star pilot program designed to further improve commercial building energy efficiency. The Building Performance with Energy Star program will link eight Energy Star partner utilities and state energy efficiency programs throughout the country in a pilot designed to strategically pursue whole-building energy improvements with commercial customers.
The new effort includes a number of Energy Star elements to improve energy efficiency, including: measuring energy use with EPA’s online energy measurement and tracking tool on building performance, finding energy efficiency opportunities based on whole building assessments, and creating a delivery network for whole-building efficiency services. One benefit of this pilot program will be to help business customers identify buildings that could most use an efficiency tune-up and then to give technical assistance and incentives for the projects that will yield the largest energy savings. Energy use in commercial buildings accounts for 17% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, at an energy cost of more than $100 billion per year. See the EPA press release and a fact sheet on the program (PDF 36 KB). Download Adobe Reader.
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The government’s key inflation measure came in higher than expected due to a 6.3% jump in oil and gas prices.
NEW YORK — Consumer prices in October were essentially unchanged from a year ago, the government reported Wednesday, as the rising cost of oil and gas offset earlier price declines.
The Consumer Price Index, the government’s key inflation reading, is now down only 0.2% during the past 12 months compared to the same period a year ago. This is the smallest 12-month rate of decline since February.
The so-called core CPI, which is more closely watched by economists because it strips out volatile food and energy prices, is up 1.7% over the past year.
For the month, overall prices rose 0.3%. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a 0.2% rise.
The core CPI rose just 0.2% in the month, but that was higher than the forecast of a 0.1% increase.
A 6.3% rise in fuel prices in the month helped feed the overall monthly increase. The prices of other forms of energy increased in October as well, with electricity costs up 0.6% and natural gas prices rising 1.9%.
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 Women have a voice! LONDON – Women bear the brunt of drought, rising seas, melting glaciers and other effects of climate change but are mostly ignored in the debate over how to halt it, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Wednesday.
In its 2009 state of the world population report, the agency said the world’s poor are the most vulnerable to climate change and the majority of the 1.5 billion people living on $1.0 a day or less are women.
“Poor women in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change, even though they contributed the least to it,” said UNFPA executive director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.
World leaders are due to meet at a U.N. global warming summit in Copenhagen in December and the U.N. agency urged them to think about how much women are harmed by climate change and how much they could be engaged in the fight against it.
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 Texas Oil Feild NEW YORK – Oil prices rose on Wednesday as a drop in U.S. oil and fuel inventories outweighed wider economic concerns.
Crude stockpiles in the world’s top consumer fell by 900,000 barrels last week, more than forecasts for a 300,000-barrel drop, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.
Gasoline and distillate stocks dropped by 1.7 million and 300,000 barrels. respectively.
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 Seen here are dolphins directly in the path of the drillers. How will the wildlife be effected by this new lease on the wildlife's Habitat ??? WASHINGTON- The U.S. Interior Department said on Friday it plans to lease nearly 36 million acres (14.6 million hectares) to energy companies next spring to drill for oil and natural gas in the central Gulf of Mexico, but will shorten the time that the firms have to develop the tracts.
The area to be leased could produce up to 1.3 billion barrels of crude oil and 5.4 trillion cubic feet of gas according to the department.
“Continued development in appropriate areas of the Outer Continental Shelf, such as in the areas we will offer in the Gulf of Mexico, is a key component of our efforts to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil,” said U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Lease Sale 213 will involve about 6,800 tracts spread over 35.9 million acres located 3 to 250 miles off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The blocks are in water depths from 10 feet to more than 11,200 feet.
The proposed sale blocks include about 4.2 million acres in an area know as 181 South, near the Alabama-Florida offshore border. Drilling off Florida in the Gulf is only allowed far from the state’s shoreline.
Click Here to Continue reading U.S. to lease 36 million offshore acres for oil drilling
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