My first brand new car was a Honda CRX for 9500.00.....my second new care was a ford focus for 15,000.....as you can see--cars dont float my boat....if it gets me where I have to go yeah,,,,,I hate feeding it but, it wont move if I dont......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
CAPITAL REGION Extra funds made available to help with rising home heating bills BY JILL BRYCE Gazette Reporter
Low- and fixed-income families faced with rising heating bills may get some additional help this winter. The federal government released $450 million in emergency funds Wednesday to provide relief to low-income homeowners. About $82.3 million of the federal money is going to New York state. “It’s tremendously welcome news,” said Paul Tonko, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. “There are people out there who have to make very difficult decisions whether to eat, take medications or pay the utility bill.” For many on fixed income, energy bills are mounting. “If there is any relief we can provide immediately we should,” he said. “The scary notion is that today, 20 to 30 percent of a household’s income for the community we’re addressing goes to pay energy bills.” The average price of home heating oil has been above $3.50 a gallon, a third higher than it was a year ago. The cost of propane has also increase by more than 28 percent over the previous year’s average. The federal money released Wednesday comes from the contingency fund from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, LIHEAP (commonly known as HEAP). In New York, federal dollars designated for energy assistance are distributed to counties by the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. HEAP funding is available to provide heating cost assistance to households with 60 percent of the state median income or below, who either pay directly for heating costs or pay rent that includes heating costs. So far this winter heating season, HEAP has issued benefits to more than 600,000 families in New York totaling more than $150 million, according to Gov. Spitzer’s office. “This additional funding will allow us to continue providing HEAP benefits throughout the entire heating season. We will also explore other options as we monitor trends in fuel costs and weather patterns through the remainder of the winter,” said OTDA Commissioner David A. Hansell. Schenectady County Social Services Commissioner Dennis Packard expects an increase in residents who need assistance later this month, once the meters are read and energy bills from the cold snap arrive. The demand for aid corresponds with the weather. When a cold snap hits, more people apply and families on assistance may seek more financial help. Recognizing the rising costs of home heating fuel, OTDA increased the maximum regular benefit a household can receive by 23 percent to $540 for this winter, up from $440 the previous year. And eligibility levels were also increased to the maximum allowed under law. For example, a family of four with a household income of as much as $43,308 — up from $40,716 a year ago — is eligible for home energy assistance this year. It’s still too early to say if qualified applicants will get a second benefit this year with the release of emergency federal funds. Currently, income-eligible residents in New York can receive one benefi t a season, which last year averaged $270, and could also be eligible for an emergency benefit if they are in danger of running out of fuel or having their utility service shut off. The average emergency benefit last year was $371. Some say the federal government could do more to help lowincome homeowners with rising fuel costs. “It’s a timely release, but not enough, said Gerald Norlander, executive director the Public Utility Law Project in Albany. “We’re hearing from people having difficulties paying for increased fuel. I think it will be particularly hard for the people who heat with oil in suburban and rural areas.” The federal government releases HEAP funds to make it look like something is being done, said Norlander. In 2005, LIHEAP was authorized for $5.2 billion in 2005, and half of that is being used, said Norlander. Even this recent infusion of funds brings HEAP to 77 percent of 2006 funding levels, he said. “We are running a broken down, national program. It doesn’t really deal with the growing needs of people who can’t afford their energy,” said Norlander. Although the maximum benefit level that qualified applicants can receive has increased, Norlander said the state needs to look at individuals living on public assistance.
The average price of home heating oil has been above $3.50 a gallon, a third higher than it was a year ago. The cost of propane has also increase by more than 28 percent over the previous year’s average.
EVERYTHING is 1/3 more expensive and it has been for 6months----where the hell have ya'll been??? asleep or avoiding the elephant in the room hoping it would go away????
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Gasoline prices expected to rise Analysts say some cities on coasts could see $4 a gallon this spring BY JOHN WILEN The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Get ready for another surge in gasoline prices. Experts are predicting pump prices, which jumped by almost a dollar a gallon in each of the last two springs in many parts of the United States, will spike again this year as refiners and gas stations switch from winter- to summerblended fuels. The increases, starting as early as February in southern California, could push the average national price to a record $3.50 a gallon or more by June. That would be 17 percent higher than today’s average of just under $3 a gallon, which already is about 80 cents a gallon higher than yearago levels thanks to the surge of crude oil that took futures prices briefly to $100 a barrel. Prices in urban areas on each coast could approach $4 a gallon. And the reason for the spring price shocks? Analysts say it’s linked to a shortage of alkylate, a little-known and expensive gasoline additive that some in the industry are calling “liquid gold.” It has become a must-have ingredient since refiners stopped using MTBE two years ago when the potentially cancer-causing additive was found to be seeping into ground water. The alkylate shortage has become the most important driver of summer gas prices, said Doug Leggate, an analyst at Citigroup Global Markets. “Supply of [alkylate] will set the price of summer gasoline — not inventory levels,” he said. Oil companies deny they are purposely limiting production of alkylate, which like gasoline, jet fuel and asphalt is a byproduct of the oil refining process. But only recently have some started studying how they can boost output, and alkylate prices today are more than 15 percent higher than spot gasoline prices. That means overall costs will jump when it is added in larger quantities to summer-blend fuel. Without additives, gasoline doesn’t burn completely, increasing tailpipe air pollution. And untreated gas evaporates more quickly in hot weather, potentially causing vapor lock when it changes from a liquid to a gas and blocks fuel lines. The federal government long ago required refiners to boost the oxygen content of summerblend gasoline to make it burn more completely, a problem that was solved by adding MTBE and, more recently, ethanol. But ethanol also has a high evaporation rate, so refiners increasingly have turned to alkylate, which Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., calls the “magic bullet” in making summer gasoline. Alkylate and other gasoline additives don’t raise the same safety issues as MTBE because they don’t bond with water as effectively as MTBE did, analysts say. Demand for alkylate changes with the seasons, falling in autumn and rising in the spring. On average, alkylate makes up about 10 percent of a gallon of gas, though that rises to as much as 15 percent in summer. But making more of it is not as simple as throwing a switch since the underlying chemical properties of oil limit how much of any one refined petroleum product can be produced. On average, about 44 percent of each barrel of oil ends up as gasoline, 22 percent as diesel fuel and heating oil, 9 percent as jet fuel, and about 4 percent each as heavy fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gas, according to the Energy Department. The remainder is comprised of smaller products and additives. The refining process is loud, hot and smelly. Boilers separate, or “crack,” oil into new substances by subjecting it to high temperatures and pressure. As different products are boiled out, pipes carry them to other boilers or vessels where they’re further refined, mixed with other substances or cleaned of pollutants and toxins. Alkylate is made via a chemical reaction sparked when olefi n fluids and isobutane — two of the smaller byproducts of the main gasoline producing unit — are mixed with acid. “As opposed to the [gasoline unit] that cracks big components into small, this one takes two components and basically combines them,” said Mark Fligner, director of planning and economics at Valero Energy Corp.’s refinery in Paulsboro, N.J., across the Delaware river and just south of Philadelphia. Owners of about two-thirds of U.S. refineries have invested the $100 million or more it takes to add an alkylate unit. The rest have to buy alkylate on the spot market if they want to use it as additive in their gasoline supplies. Refiners aren’t gaming the system, purposely limiting alkylate production to boost gas prices, said John Auers, senior vice president at Turner Mason & Co., a Dallas consultancy. “They’re not because they can’t,” he said. “You can’t make more alkylate than you have feedstocks.” But there are tradeoffs that every refiner must weigh. For example, olefins and isobutane are in high demand for use in producing other lucrative products like plastics. Refiners can tweak their main gasoline producing unit to make more olefins and isobutane, but that would cut the gasoline output. Alkylate prices have jumped from 77 cents a gallon in the summer of 2001 — when MTBE was still in use — to nearly $3 a gallon at points over the past two summers. Wednesday’s price on the spot market was $2.72 a gallon, 40 cents more than the spot price of gasoline, according to Platts. Retail prices for gas are higher because things like state and federal taxes are added. In recent summers, that spot market differential has jumped as high as 60 cents. Refiners place the blame for spring gas price increases on crude costs, environmental regulations that have increased the overall cost of refining, and their inability to expand or build new refineries fast enough to keep up with gasoline demand. John Pickering, vice president and general manager at the Paulsboro refinery, said Valero makes enough alkylate to meet its needs, but concedes that there is a national shortage of the additive in the spring and summer. Other refiners contacted by The Associated Press said they are reluctant for competitive reasons to talk about how they blend gasoline, or whether they face alkylate shortages. What is known, however, is that refiners are hiring companies such as UOP LLC of Des Plaines, Ill., to determine whether they can increase the capacity of their existing alkylation units. “In the last year or so, there has been a significant uptick [in business],” said Ashis Banerji, director for refining at UOP, which licenses alkylation technology to refiners. And the 36 percent of domestic refineries that don’t have alkylation units are looking at adding them. “Our impression is that refi neries are moving as fast as they possibly can to add alkylation capacity,” said Jim Pawloski, business director at UOP competitor Du-Pont Clean Technologies, a unit of DuPont Co. He said his unit’s business has jumped five-fold over the past five years and will likely double again this year. The steep jump in summer alkylate prices has also caught the attention of at least two companies that used to produce MTBE. Enterprise Products Partners LP and Texas Petrochemicals Inc., both of Houston, say they’re closely studying whether to convert idled MTBE plants into alkylate factories. That also highlights the conundrum that is alkylate: If too many refiners decide to spend big bucks to crank up production, the premium prices now enjoyed by alkylate makers could disappear. Refiners have to weigh the cost of such an investment against the incremental cost of simply buying the extra alkylate they need. “I’m not sure that it would be economical,” said Jeff Hazle, technical director at the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. But if production doesn’t rise, American motorists will be faced with big jumps in spring gas prices for years to come.
Buy stock in oil refining and gas producing companies as they're going to make a ton of money from now to eternity unless we find a way to ease our demand for oil.
By JOHN PORRETTO, Associated Press Friday, February 1, 2008
HOUSTON -- Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company -- $40.6 billion -- on Friday as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from historic crude prices at the end of the year.
Exxon also set a U.S. record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, beating its own mark of $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005. The previous record for annual profit was $39.5 billion, which Exxon Mobil had in 2006. The eye-popping results weren't a surprise given record prices for a barrel of oil at the end of 2007. For much of the fourth quarter, they hovered around $90 a barrel, more than 50 percent higher than a year ago. Crude prices reached an all-time trading high of $100.09 on Jan. 3 but have fallen about 10 percent since then. The record profit for the October-December period amounted to $2.13 a share versus $1.76 a share in 2006. Year-ago net income was $10.25 billion. Also extraordinary was Exxon Mobil's revenue, which rose 30 percent in the fourth quarter to $116.6 billion from $90 billion a year ago. For the year, sales rose to $404.5 billion -- the most ever for the Irving, Texas-based company -- from $377.64 billion in 2006. In addition to benefiting from higher commodity prices, the company said its results were evidence of a well-run, globally diverse operation that's investing billions to find more energy supplies. It noted that its capital and exploration spending amounted to nearly $21 billion last year, up 5 percent from 2006. Exxon Mobil produces about 3 percent of the world's oil. Its shares fell 13 cents to $86.27 in afternoon trading after rising as high as $87.86 earlier in the session. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $69.02 to $95.27. Higher commodity prices in the quarter were clearly evident from earnings at Exxon Mobil's exploration and production arm, known as the upstream. Income rose 32 percent to $8.2 billion from $6.2 billion a year ago. On an oil-equivalent basis, production increased nearly 1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006, driven by higher demand for natural gas in Europe. Excluding the expropriation of its Venezuelan assets last year, divestments and other factors, production rose nearly 3 percent. Refining and marketing, or downstream, earnings were $2.3 billion, up from nearly 2 billion in the year-ago quarter, as improved refining operations offset lower U.S. refining margins. In the U.S., downstream earnings were off sharply from a year ago -- $622 million in the most-recent quarter versus $945 million in 2006. Refining margins -- the difference between the cost of crude and what the company makes on refined products such as gasoline -- have been squeezed in recent months as spiking oil prices outpaced increases in gasoline prices and other refined products. Already, ConocoPhillips has said record oil prices at the end of 2007 helped it post a 37 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, even as it produced less crude and natural gas than a year earlier. Its quarterly net income rose to $4.37 billion versus $3.2 billion a year earlier.ConocoPhillips is the nation's third-largest integrated oil company behind Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp. Chevron reported separately Friday that its profit rose 29 percent in the fourth quarter, as surging prices for crude oil offset weak results from its refining business. It earned $4.88 billion, or $2.32 per share, from $3.77 billion, or $1.74 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 29 percent to $61.41 billion from $47.75 billion. On Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, posted a 60 percent gain in fourth-quarter profit to $8.47 billion on asset sales and higher oil prices. Shell said full-year net profit was a company record $31.3 billion, up 23 percent from the prior year.
OPEC blames high oil prices on U.S. VIENNA, Austria — OPEC on Wednesday accused the U.S. of economic “mismanagement” that it said is pushing oil prices to new record highs and rebuffed calls to boost output, laying the blame on the Bush administration. Oil prices surged for the fi rst time past $104 a barrel after the OPEC announcement and the release of a U.S. government report showing a surprise drop in crude oil stockpiles. The 13-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said it would maintain current production levels . OPEC President Chakib Khelil told reporters the global market is being affected by what he called “the mismanagement of the U.S. economy,” and that America’s problems were a key factor in the cartel’s decision to hold off on any action.
Oil prices rise to record $108 a barrel, pushing gas higher too BY JOHN WILEN The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Gasoline prices were poised Monday to set a new record at the pump, having surged to within half a cent of their record high of $3.227 a gallon. Oil prices, meanwhile, surged above $108 to a new inflation-adjusted record and their fifth new high in the last six sessions on an upbeat report on wholesale inventories. The national average price of a gallon of gas rose 0.7 cent overnight to $3.222 a gallon, 69 cents higher than one year ago, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Last May, prices peaked at $3.227 as surging demand and a string of refinery outages raised concerns about supplies. That record will likely be left in the dust soon as gas prices accelerate toward levels that could approach $4 a gallon, though most analysts believe prices will peak below that psychologically significant mark. In its last forecast, released last month, the Energy Department said prices will likely peak around $3.40 a gallon this spring; a new forecast is due Tuesday. Retail gas prices are following crude oil, which has jumped 25 percent in a month. On Monday, crude prices surged to yet another record after the Commerce Department said wholesale sales jumped by 2.7 percent in January, their biggest increase in four years, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The strong sales report suggested to oil traders that the struggling economy may be doing better than thought. Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose $2.75 to settle at a record $107.90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier setting a new trading record of $108.21. Energy investors shrugged off a relative stabilization of the dollar and a cooling in tensions between Venezuela and its neighbors Colombia and Ecuador. Many analysts believe speculative investing attracted by the weak dollar is the primary reason oil has risen so far so fast in recent months. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is falling. “We’ve got a [Federal Reserve] meeting on the 18th that could see a sizeable rate cut,” said Brad Samples, an analyst with Summit Energy Services Inc., in Louisville, Ky. “So, it’s not over.” Indeed, while the dollar rose against the euro on Monday, many investors believe the greenback is likely to keep falling as the Fed continues to cut rates. Many analysts believe the rise in crude prices is not supported by the market’s underlying fundamentals, noting that supplies are generally rising while demand is falling. “By gobbling up everything in sight, [investors] are pushing food and fuel prices to ruinously high levels,” said Peter Beutel, president of the energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover, in a research note. Investors shrugged off a weekend cooling of tensions in South America, where Venezuela said Sunday it was restoring full diplomatic ties with Colombia after they were broken off following a cross-border Colombian attack on a leftist rebel camp in Ecuador. Last week, rebels shut down a Colombian oil pipeline in retaliation for the Colombian raid into Ecuador. Venezuela threatened to slash trade and nationalize Colombian-owned businesses, and Venezuela and Ecuador briefly sent troops to their borders with Colombia. The potential for conflict involving Venezuela, an OPEC member and major U.S. oil supplier, helped push oil higher last week. “The Venezuelan production was at risk there,” Samples said. Other energy futures also rose Monday. April heating oil futures rose 2.64 cents to settle at $2.9734 a gallon while April gasoline futures rose 2.06 cents to settle at $2.7149 a gallon. April natural gas futures jumped 25.5 cents to $10.024 per 1,000 cubic feet, the first time a natural gas contract has closed above $10 since January 2006. Natural gas was following oil higher, but also rising in anticipation of cooler temperatures across the Midwest and Northeast, analysts said. In London, Brent crude futures rose $1.78 to $104.16 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
If the truckers are willing to slow down from 75 mph to 65 mph [Gazette, March 23], and in some cases to 62 mph, this would save millions of gallons of diesel fuel. If private motorists across the nation would take heed of this idea, just think of the billions of gasoline that could be saved. Or if we could get legislators to do some good for their constituents, and lower the speed limits in their prospective states, then everyone will be doing their fair share to get our nation on the right track in conserving fuel. The way we are wasting our fuel supplies now, in no time at all we will be back to odd-even rationing to fill our tanks. Or do we want to go back to long, long lines of cars waiting to fuel up? Or do we want to start paying $4, $5 or $6 a gallon? If that comes about — recession. How about a depression? COLEMAN J. ELLEN Niskayuna
Logged
