Small used car prices decline as gas prices fall

by detroitnews.com

Washington — Prices for fuel-efficient used vehicles are falling with lower gas prices after hitting high resale values earlier this year, the National Automobile Dealers Association said Tuesday.

After double-digit percentage gains from January through May 2012, prices on many used compact and midsize cars are expected to drop up to 5 percent in June compared to May, said Jonathan Banks, senior analyst with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Used Car Guide. The trend is expected to continue this summer.

Gas prices are now averaging $3.71 a gallon — down 3.5 percent from a year ago — and well below the $3.94 a gallon national average in April.

“The trend of rising prices for used cars will reverse course in June because of declining gasoline prices combined with a normal seasonal slowdown in consumer demand for used cars,” Banks said.

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Summer gas prices – as good as they’ll get

by ketknbc.com

CNN — As the summer driving season gets underway, most Americans are enjoying lower gas prices than they might have expected when the spring began.

But prices, while well off their 2012 peak set in early April, are still higher than they’ve been at the start of most summers.

The current national average of $3.636 for a gallon of unleaded is down about 15 cents from a year ago and 30 cents from this year’s peak, according to readings from AAA. But it’s still the third-highest price on record for a Memorial Day weekend, behind only 2011 and 2008.

And experts say that despite oil futures recently falling to below $90 a barrel for the first time since November recently, the steady slide in gas prices might not extend much further.

“We might move a little lower, we might move a little higher,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst of the Oil Price Information Service, the firm that compiles the pump price averages for AAA.

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Hundreds of Thousands More Suffer Cuts to Unemployment Aid

by commondreams.org

US contines to ‘pull the rug out from under the unemployed’

– Common Dreams staff

According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), 230,000 more Americans in eight states suffered extreme cuts to federal unemployment benefits over the weekend. Now over 400,000 total people in 27 states have lost federal unemployment insurance due to Congressional cuts.

As unemployment rates remain near record highs, “A growing number of long-term unemployed workers are being left behind…Job openings are not taking the place of these cuts,” said Christine Owens, executive director of the NELP.

More than 100,000 people lost benefits in California alone, which maintains one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

More unemployment cuts lay ahead as another seven states will lose federal benefits by September bringing the total to 34 states facing reduced federal assistance.

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With all this natural gas, who needs oil?

by csmonitor.com

Bob Mann leans against his wife’s 2006 Volkswagen Jetta in his tool-packed garage. The mechanic and inventor has just converted the car, which is the color of a ripe crab apple, to run on natural gas. He shakes his head.

“It’s a no-brainer. We could jump-start the economy overnight, put 100,000 people to work – easy – and help the environment,” says Mr. Mann, a former Volkswagen technician who’s as comfortable talking about global energy solutions as he is around a socket wrench.

From his suburban home in a wooded neighborhood once known for its shipbuilding prowess, Mann is crafting automotive gadgets for a future that many believe could help solve the nation’s long-intractable energy woes – one fueled mostly by natural gas. During the past five years, Mann has converted more than 10 cars to run on compressed natural gas, in addition to gasoline, using a device he invented, the “CNG Fogger,” which boosts the vehicles’ mileage. Commuters in the Boston area have snapped up his cars from Craigs­list as have CNG enthusiasts as far away as Wisconsin. Mann has also built a CNG race car and wants to design another to compete in theIndianapolis 500.

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US gasoline futures post biggest weekly loss since Sept

by reuters.com

(Reuters) – U.S. gasoline futures posted the biggest weekly loss in seven months this week, as fears of a supply squeeze that threatened to send prices soaring for the summer fade, analysts and traders said on Friday.

The drop, which came after the specter of $5 a gallon gasoline became a hot issue in the U.S. presidential election debate, was driven by expectations that cargoes of fuel from Europe and the potential sale of one or two East Coast refineries would ease the potential for a shortfall during the driving season.

The fall has been extreme — down more than 6 percent this week alone to $3.1427 a gallon and off almost 9 percent from March 29, when gasoline futures hit an 11-month high. At the time, it appeared three refineries on the U.S. East Coast could shut due to poor margins over the summer, roughly half of the region’s capacity.

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Three Ways to Lower Gas Prices

by sfgate.com

The stock market started off 2012 with a strong rally, but so did gasoline prices. The January increase was listed as one of the steepest ever and had market forecasters calling for prices as high as $5 per gallon at some point in 2012. The average price of gas has yet to reach that price, based on a national average, but it could still happen if the summer driving season comes in more active than expected, or if Middle East tensions increase again.

With the presidential election set for later this year, politicians are getting active in advocating ways to lower prices at the pump. Below are three ways that Obama could advocate to lower gas prices. The short-term impact might be minimal, but it could help the U.S. lower prices over time and also depend less on more volatile supplies.

Push Toward Domestic Energy
In March 2011, the White House released some details on a plan to secure the nation’s energy future. Its first point was to expand domestic oil and gas production. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique that sends a mix of water, chemicals or sand into the ground to break apart rock and release gas. Drilling for oil can be done in a similar fashion that utilizes new techniques and technologies that allow for the oil to be extracted from wells that were thought dry under older methods.

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Retail Sales in U.S. Climb More than Forecast on Jobs: Economy

by Bloomberg.com

Retail sales in the U.S. rose more than forecast in March as Americans snapped up everything from cars and furniture to clothes and electronics.

The 0.8 percent gain was almost three times as large as projected and followed a 1 percent advance in February, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an increase of 0.3 percent.

An improving job market is giving households confidence to sustain spending in the face of higher gasoline costs, boosting sales at chains such as Gap Inc. (GPS) and Target Corp. (TGT) Strengthening consumer demand raises the odds that the world’s largest economy will weather a recession in Europe and slower growth in China.

Households “have the income to propel their purchases now that we’re seeing job growth,” said Russell Price, senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit and the third- best forecaster of retail sales for the 24 months ended in March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “They have adjusted to the higher price of fuel. The economy now needs to build on its own momentum.”

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Homegrown Power for Auto Plants

by NYtimes.com

BERLIN

ACKNOWLEDGING that it makes little sense to spend billions to develop electric cars if charging their batteries produces roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide as the most efficient gasoline models, some European automakers are investing directly in renewable energy.

Wind farms, solar installations, hydroelectric power and so-called e-gas plants are among the experiments intended to demonstrate that zero-carbon transportation can be a viable alternative.

In Germany, several recent studies commissioned by the federal environment ministry concluded that in order for electric vehicles to help reduce the levels of greenhouse gases being produced, additional sources of renewably generated electricity must be created. In other words, the source of the electricity that charges electric cars and plug-in hybrids must not only be clean, but also new, beyond existing sources. Today, electricity from renewables accounts for 21 percent of all electricity in Germany.

With a goal of having six million electric cars on the road by 2030, German automakers have a strong incentive to make their newest E.V.’s as carbon neutral as possible. Daimler says its third generation of E-Smarts, the first that will be sold to the public, will be carbon-neutral in terms of driving.

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