Gas and oil prices pushed further into record high territory Tuesday, with retail gas reaching a national average of $3.51 for the first time and crude nearing $120 as the dollar fell to a new low against the euro. At the pump, the national average price of a gallon of regular gas rose 0.8 cent.  

Gasoline supplies are also being hurt by low profit margins. Refiners have to buy the crude they turn into fuel, but falling demand for gasoline has hurt their ability to raise gas prices as much as they would like. Gas prices are nearly 66 cents higher than last year, when they peaked at a then-record of $3.23 in late May, and have prompted many analysts to raise their estimates of where gas is going to go.

Gas prices are exploding in Germany at $8.60 per gallon

Record prices on the international oil markets have driven gas prices across Europe sky high, with a gallon of unleaded gas costing about $8.60 per gallon in Germany.  (In Germany, gas is sold by the liter with one liter of unleaded fuel selling for an average of $2.29).  Hopefully, we are seeing oil in its last days as a use for energy.

The cost of filling up the family car climbed to a record high Tuesday.

Gas prices at the pump rose overnight to a record national average of $3.2272 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That’s a tad higher than the previous record of $3.2265, set last May. Still, because gas is so expensive, analysts expect demand for fuel will rise more slowly this spring and summer than in previous years.

Prices have already passed the $4 mark at many stations nationwide. The effect can be seen in states such as California, where prices are consistently 30 cents higher than the national average.

The Foggy City of San Francisco?

It doesn’t seem like an ideal place to promote solar energy, but foggy San Francisco has come up with an ambitious plan to encourage businesses and homeowners to tap the sun’s power for their energy needs. The program announced Tuesday would offer companies and residents government-funded loans and rebates to offset the costs of installing solar panels, city officials said. Many states, including California, offer tax credits or rebates to encourage solar power, and some small utility companies provide financing incentives. San Francisco’s program may be the most ambitious because it couples refunds and loans.

Under San Francisco’s proposal, which must be approved by voters and legislators, businesses would be eligible for rebates of up to $10,000. Residents would receive $3,000 to $5,000 off the cost of installing solar panels depending on whether they use a local contractor and are working on property in a neighborhood near a power plant. About 660 homes and other buildings in San Francisco already have solar installations. Officials said they hope to bring the number up to 10,000 over the next decade by cutting property owners’ out-of-pocket costs by half, if not more.

Today PetroChina Co. became the world’s first company valued at more than a trillion dollars

Analysts expect PetroChina to surpass Exxon Mobil as the world’s largest company by market capitalization. PetroChina shares, already traded in New York and Hong Kong, are expected to be seized on by a market awash with cash and investors eager for new opportunities. The ebullience with which Chinese investors have embraced the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets has made China home to some of the world’s most expensive companies. It has the biggest bank, insurance company and airline by market capitalization. Five of the world’s 10 largest companies are there.

Abandoned Power Plants Come Back To Life

The nuclear power industry is trying to come back. With natural gas prices volatile and people anxious about climate change, the nuclear power industry is touting its technology as a way to meet the nation’s growing energy needs without emitting more greenhouse gases. Over the next two years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects applications to build as many as 32 new nuclear reactors. Uh… Yikes?

Utilities and independent power companies are laying the groundwork for a new wave of U.S. nuclear plants. On Sept. 24, NRG Energy filed the first full application for a new nuclear unit since the partial meltdown of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island plant in 1979. There is still a lot of worry about the economics of nuclear power. Nuclear plants are hugely expensive to build; they have long lead times and a history of cost overruns. Bottlenecks loom for key components if more than a few plants are built. The price of uranium has soared in recent years. So has the cost of construction materials and skilled labor, which is in short supply. Politicians, environmentalists and business still can’t decide how to dispose of radioactive waste. Well, there’s outer space!

A Bright Spot in California’s Real Estate Market

Solar-powered homes are starting to outsell traditionally electrified new homes in several markets, and developers are stepping up their use of the technology. The growing popularity of household solar power is an encouraging sign for the thousands of solar enthusiasts and vendors gathering in Long Beach this week.

“The increase in sales velocity is actually paying for the solar systems,” says Julie Blumden, a vice president of a San Jose-based manufacturer of solar roof tiles. “The last time we saw interest in solar that was anything close to this was back in the 1980s, the first time there were federal tax credits for solar energy,” said Julia Judd Hamm, executive director of the Solar Electric Power Assn. “But the numbers then aren’t even comparable to what we’re seeing now.” Solar power is hotter than ever, helped by California’s ambitious Million Solar Roofs rebate program, federal tax credits and growing public and political support for renewable power of all kinds.

Your Purchasing Limit Of Balloons: 10

The worldwide helium demand is outpacing supply, and any interruption in production and delivery can throw the market off balance. Helium plants expected to be fully operating this year in Qatar and Algeria were delayed and, in some cases, shut down. In September of last year, Exxon Mobil Corp., one of the nation’s largest private producers of helium, shut down a plant in Wyoming for scheduled maintenance. Two months later, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management — which operates the Federal Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas, and provides crude helium to private refineries — did the same with its helium enrichment plant.

A Little Helium History: Helium, the most stable of all the elements, is used to cool the magnets used by MRI equipment and purge the space shuttle’s fuel tanks. Helium also is used in detecting gas leaks in other products and conducting state-of-the-art particle physics research. The gas even has a hand in the semiconductor and computer chip manufacturing process and plays a role in the guiding mechanisms of air-to-air missiles. The federal reserve has become a major world supplier, but that was not the government’s intention. When private demand outstripped the federal need, Congress passed the 1996 Helium Privatization Act, and the reserve was intended to supplement private sector production. The program, however, now supplies about 42% of the domestic demand for helium and 35% of the global demand. Picture Above: Balloon Man: A petrol station owner filled 105 balloons with helium, attached them to his favorite lawn chair, then sat back and drifted away.

Pass This On To Your Spouse, Friends, Whoever Makes Household Decisions

• Switch your incandescent bulbs for compact florescent light bulbs. It can save you 50% a year on your lighting bill. If every household in the country did this, it would cut the same amount of greenhouse gas as removing 8 million cars a year from the road.
• Buy local produce. Shipping produce can drive up prices. Buying foods in season from local farmer’s markets and roadside stands not only improves quality, but cuts cost. Go to LocalHarvest.org to find a market in your area. Helps keep gas-guzzling trucks off the road.
• Install a programmable thermostat. Homeowners can save more than $100 a year on their energy bills by installing a programmable thermostat. If 1 out of every 10 U.S. households used programmable thermostats, it would eliminate 17 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.
• Choose Energy Star appliances. Energy Star appliances use up to 50% less energy compared with other home appliances. Using them saved American consumers $14 billion on their utility bills last year. Last year the use of energy-efficient appliances cut greenhouse gas emissions as much as removing 25 million cars from the road.
• Pay bills online. Other than those $0.41 cent stamps adding up, some companies are starting to charge additional fees for processing paper bills ranging from $0.99 to $2. Paying online allows you to bypass these fees and minimizes the chance of identity theft. Not only does it eliminate clutter, you can also save trees!

Start making a stand to protect your earth and wallet.

To Help Earth, There Needs To Be A Strong Message That Inspires Everyone

Saving the planet is hard work, Al Gore says, and somebody has to sell the idea. As a follow-up to last weekend’s Live Earth concerts he helped promote, Mr. Gore is sponsoring a competition to create a series of television and Internet ads to raise awareness on the issue of climate change. Gore said he hoped to use a sophisticated and well-financed advertising campaign to motivate people in the United States and around the globe to demand immediate action on the greenhouse gases that scientists say are cooking the planet. The best way to reach public hearts and minds, the former vice president said, is through the time-tested medium of advertising.

Mr. Gore, through his environmental group, the Alliance for Climate Protection, has sent invitations to advertising agencies to submit 15-, 30- and 60-second “ecospots” explaining the global warming phenomenon and urging action to address it, at either the local or national level. The alliance is soliciting entries from anyone with a camera or video-editing capabilities. Submissions are due by Sept. 12, and the spots will be judged by a panel of activists, scientists and celebrities like Cameron Diaz and George Clooney. Here’s a great example.

Tech Competitions, Start Ups, The Usual

Silicon Valley’s green energy start-ups have many worries. Homework usually isn’t one of them, but for Calsunergy, in the valley’s fast-growing green energy industry, homework will be part of the new business equation. The chief executive hopes to launch the company before beginning eighth grade in the fall. The chief technical officer is getting ready to start sixth grade. And the company’s chief financial officer and vice president of marketing are readying themselves for fifth grade.

How They Got Started. It all started when 10-year-old Aryan Taheri attended a California Clean Tech Open event with his dad, Sam. The older Taheri planned to enter the competition, geared to help entrepreneurs who dream of starting their own environmentally friendly company. Aryan went back to his friends, teammates from other competitions, and together they researched ideas for new renewable energy products. About a month ago, they informally launched Santa Clara-based Calsunergy with hopes of selling low-cost, high-efficiency solar panels. Aryan became the company’s top marketing executive and the group plans to incorporate the company if the product wins the competition. The group meets about once a week to review prototypes and work on a business plan, said Bao Tran, father of the company’s chief financial officer, Alan Tran, 10. All the parents have chipped in to lend expertise when needed, he said. Tran is helping with a patent application while others offer technical advice.Launched last year, this year’s competition has attracted more than 100 business plans for prizes in six categories: energy efficiency, smart power, transportation, water management, renewable energy and green building. Judges included venture capitalists, academics and consultants. The finalist will be announced at the end of July; winners will be announced in October.

The Uphill Game of Oil Corruption 

A decade ago, geologists found signs that one of Africa’s least-known countries, the tiny island nation of São Tomé and Principe, might hold a king’s ransom in oil. The first drop of oil has yet to be produced. But these days, little São Tomé may have attracted ample supplies of something else, federal investigators suspect — oil-related corruption. All of this might not seem unusual in Africa, where oil and corruption often go hand in hand.

In recent years, a steady stream of activists like the Columbia University economist Jeffrey D. Sachs have gone there to try to make sure that any energy boom would benefit its 150,000 people, rather than politicians and companies.“Oil can be a blessing or a bane for a country,” Mr. Sachs said. “The theory was to help São Tomé avoid the resource curse.” Mr. Sachs and other activist’s mission: To prevent the country from following in footsteps of other African countries where corruption and waste typically follow oil. In Nigeria, the continent’s largest producer, most people live on less than $2 a day while politicians have stolen or squandered billions. Things, however, have not quite worked out that way. The recent Justice Department indictment of William J. Jefferson, a Democratic congressman from Louisiana, contends, for example, that he solicited a bribe from a company seeking his help with an oil-related dispute involving São Tomé. Separately, federal authorities are investigating a small Houston-based company whose only assets are large holdings in São Tomé to determine if it bribed the country’s officials. At that time, the Texas company was owned by some wildcatters and an enterprising Florida businesswoman named Noreen Wilson. In 1997, Ms. Wilson signed a $5 million contract that gave ERHC, which was then known as the Environmental Remediation Holding Corporation, exploration rights in São Tomé for 25 years. The contract was soon described by some outside experts as extremely lopsided. Soon afterward, Ms. Wilson resigned from ERHC during an investigation of the company by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But she appeared to retain an interest in the island’s future; in 2001, for instance, she apparently reached out to Mr. Jefferson for help. The attorney general’s report may have precipitated last summer’s raid on ERHC’s Houston offices by the F.B.I. Among other things, F.B.I. agents took a file marked “William Jefferson,” a reference to the Louisiana congressman, a publicly filed subpoena shows.

A Columbia University team and others helped draft a new oil law that contained safeguards to make sure São Tomé spent its oil-related revenue properly. The team then traveled around the country, holding meetings on cocoa plantations and in churches, where they explained to residents how the new statute would protect their interests. Unfortunately, by late 2005, some companies that won blocs in the zone controlled jointly by São Tomé and its neighbor were headed by Nigerian businessmen with political ties but no oil experience. In addition, the report found some large multinational oil companies were so suspicious of ERHC that they decided not to bid and added that ERHC “may have made improper payments to government officials.” Whatever the case, ERHC has emerged thus far as the biggest winner in São Tomé. Over the last year, it has sold off various rights to its holdings in São Tomé, making tens of millions of dollars in the process.

Fradique de Menezes, the country’s president, who met on several occasions with Mr. Jefferson, did not respond to repeated requests to be interviewed for this article.

Oil, Nuclear, Solar, Coal, Wind, Biomass and Natural Gas Fields in the U.S.

This is a pretty appealing map. Just open the menu on the left hand side and click on all the different resources. An educational tool for your kids as well.

Electricity bill, Gas bill, blah, blah, blah

Kilowatts, gallons — they all add up. Energy is now sucking money out of Americans’ bank accounts at a record level — hitting $612 billion at an annual rate in the month of April, the last month of data. Over the past two years, energy bills as a share of income have risen and are now at their highest point since 1987. For low-income households, some economists estimate energy consumption as a percentage of income is closing in on 10%.
Just before the Fourth of July weekend, gasoline prices are about $2.96 a gallon nationally, up 11.3 cents from a year ago, or 3.9% higher.