I know all the time I’m bragging about the quality of foreign cars versus domestic ones, but so is everyone else. In an article from MSNBC, you can find the best cars for under $15,000 which are cheap to maintain and they get great gas mileage so you won’t be blowing your gas budget when you fill up.

At the top of the list was the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, and Scion xD (I love that the name of that looks like a really happy emoticon). The cars all cost around $15,000 and because they are small and inexpensive, they are fairly cheap to insure as well as maintain. Oh, by the way, they also get at least 30 mpg in combined fuel efficiency. These cars will obviously use less gas and you won’t have to be putting in the expensive grades either. These cars call for regular 87 unleaded.

If you’re really looking for a domestic car, then look no further than the Chevrolet Cobalt or the Pontiac G3. They are basically the same car and only cost around $16,000 and get a combined 31 mpg.

Right now they aren’t selling as well as they were a year ago, but you also have to remember that gas prices are far cheaper right now than a year ago too. People will go back to buying these cars once gas starts creeping up again.

The cars on the MSNBC list are all gas powered vehicles. There were no hybrids on the list due to the fact that they are more expensive to maintain, insure, and they actually cost more too.

From the article:
“The best way to a cheap ride? Choose something small, light, and more often than not foreign.”
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Yesterday Southwest Airlines announced that it wanted to test some new environmentally friendly materials on a refurbished airplane that they are dubbing the “green plane.” The measures to create the environmentally friendly, recycled plane would cut the weight on an airplane and would save the company over $10 million in fuel costs if it changed all its planes to the more environmentally friendly materials.

Measures include making things such as life vest pouches and carpet more environmentally friendly. It actually shaves off about 472 pounds from each plane. With that much shaved off of the weight, each plane could save 9,500 gallons of fuel per year. Even if fuel was $2 a gallon, that would be $19,000 of savings per year. Considering that the company has 540 planes, that’s where the $10 million in savings comes from.

Over the next six months the new materials will be tested not only to see how well they can hold up against everyday wear and tear but also to see how Southwest’s customers like them. If they do, the environmentally friendly materials will be used throughout the entire fleet.

Airplanes do use a lot of fuel and anything that a company can do to maybe push a get a little more mileage out of the fuel that it already uses would be beneficial for not only the company’s bottom line but also for the environment. I would like to see what these environmentally conscious materials are and what they look and feel like. Sometimes people go “overboard” with environmentally conscious and make everything green or make it look recycled. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.

Today when I wrote this, the article Five Signs that Green is the Next Bubble to Burst had been Dugg about 150 times. It is the top business story right now.

So what are the signs that Green is the next Bubble to Burst? Here are the reasons as written by Tom Johansmeyer for BloggingStocks.com

1. Boom born in bust
Most economic booms find their roots in recessions. Innovators and entrepreneurs take advantage of lost jobs, severance packages and lower prices to get new ventures off the ground.

2. There’s no shortage of cash
Investors sunk $1.59 billion into clean technology venture capital in the third quarter of this year, continuing what’s been a solid pace in 2009. The folks with the money see the potential, and they’re committing. Since 2006, the VC community has put $8.7 billion into clean tech companies.

3. Innovation is flowing, not slowing
Solar cells, improved batteries and appliances are in development right now, along with electric cars. Infrastructure is also seeing some movement and will provide the underlying support necessary.

4. Washington is willing
The Obama administration has said it will invest $150 billion in clean tech over the next 10 years. This is forecast to create 5 million jobs — a great start to replacing the 7.2 million that have been lost to the current recession.

5. Society is on board
A combination of momentum for the sector, evolving thinking on climate change, and memories of last year’s gas prices have made more people open to the notion of green technology. And, the fact that these companies are attracting investment and grant dollars demonstrates an upside that transcends politics or science – most people care about financial upside first.

Green could be the next bubble to burst because of all of these reasons. However, I would personally like to see the whole environmentally conscious way of life continue. Even if, in the future, money gets tight for funding and the bubble does burst, hopefully we can all live a bit cleaner. Maybe our cars won’t run on fossil fuels anymore or our electricity will come from completely renewable sources.

When I think of “green” one of two things pops in my mind: grass or a hippie. I know that sounds bad, but the term “green” has become so overused now that not only do I feel that it has lost its meaning somewhere along the way, but it also has started to have negative connotation because of its overuse.

With that being said, I will not use the term “green” when describing theses brands. These are the top 10 most environmentally friendly brands according to the marketing and communications firm WPP got together with Esty Environmental Partners and created the list.

Topping the list is Clorox Green Works; the company has made changes to make sure that the products listed under the “Green Works” brand is environmentally friendly and all natural.

Number two is Burt’s Bees. This company has always been one of the most environmentally friendly companies that mass produce anything. That’s probably why it costs more than other, similar products.

Number three is Tom’s of Maine. This company offers products that are all natural and safe for the environment. This is important when you’re using soap or any other kind of personal item because when you wash it down the drain, it doesn’t end up in our oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.

Fourth on the list is SC Johnson. I don’t know if you have or haven’t seen their commercials, but they have been advertising all the ways that it is environmentally friendly. From Wikipedia: By using Greenlist, S.C. Johnson eliminated 1.8 million pounds of volatile organic compounds from Windex, and four million pounds of polyvinylidene chloride from Saran Wrap.

Toyota is number 5 on the list. This is probably thanks to the brand’s number of cars that get above 35 mpg and the Prius and other hybrids that exceed the MPGs of other car companies’ hybrids.

Procter and Gamble comes in at number six on the list. This is what Wiki says about this company and its environmental efforts: In December 2008, The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Design For Environment program awarded P&G its highest level of recognition, Champion, for P&G’s work in developing safer detergents under the Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI).

The remainder of brands on the list are (in order):

Wal-Mart
Ikea
Disney
Dove

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A disruption in the refinery of crude oil into gasoline due to a fire in a Los Angeles area refinery couldn’t even raise the price of oil and gasoline. For the first time in two months the price of a gallon of gas has fallen below $2.50 on average. Where I live, I just paid $2.38 for a gallon of regular 87 octane.

The fire at the Tesoro refinery in LA will probably effect the price of gas in California, but not too much anywhere else. The refinery processed around 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day and produced gasoline, jet fuel, and other products.

Demand for gasoline is so low that according to analyst and trader Stephen Schork, “a material disruption to supply to one of the largest markets in the world barely registered with speculators on the NYMEX.”

Wholesale gasoline for October actually increased 1.2 cents to $1.6323 per gallon today while benchmark crude for November delivery increased nearly 50 cents to $66.51 per barrel, this is after increasing 13 cents on Friday.

Prices have actually been increasing ever since Iran announced that it had a secret nuclear program at the G20 summit last week. This is due to the fact that 20 percent of the crude oil in the world is trafficked through the Straits of Hormuz which is on the southern coast of Iran. If something were to actually happen between the United States (or any country) and Iran, that route would be compromised  and oil would likely spike.

Of course, oil is one of the indicators of the economy. There are so many indicators and this is definitely one of them. After all, it’s oil that took a dive when people started realizing how bad the economy was last year. Oil also has started creeping back up and analysts are saying that other things are creeping up as well; such as the sale of homes and autos.

While it would be a good thing to not have to see oil reach the outrageous prices it hit last summer, I really want the economy to start picking up soon. Perhaps when it comes time for Chris and I to leave our college town, I’ll be able to land a real marketing job somewhere.

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On Labor Day, Verizon Wireless sponsored a rally that was organized by those who are opposed to the climate bill. The event, which was held in West Virginia, was called the “Friends of America Rally.” The goal of the event was to get people there who opposed the energy bill because it, according to the radicals putting on the event, [the climate bill] did away with American jobs.

Those in attendance included loud mouthed Fox News anchor Sean Hannity as well as Ted Nugent. The event was put together by Massey Energy, which is one of the nation’s top coal producers. That makes sense for that  company to put on such an event seeing as how coal creates so much CO2 in our atmosphere; it’s in their best interest for people to believe whatever the coal company says.

“Despite the rally’s name, it is not friendly to America to cling to an industry that keeps Appalachia in a stranglehold of economic and environmental impoverishment by permanently polluting water supplies, blocking green-energy development and economic diversification, and contributing to global climate change. Coal corporations are making millions of dollars off destroying the mountains, and only pollution and poverty are trickling down to residents,” said Tierra Curry, a native of eastern Kentucky and biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Of course, if you get the most extreme right-wing conservatives all at a rally together, more will come up than just the environment. Of course, the second amendment and the right to bear arms came up and with Ted Nugent as a speaker, how could it not?

I have to say, people will gather with people who believe the same things they do. If you would have put a liberal in the middle of that rally, they may have simply imploded from all the nonsense going on around them. I know I would have. I also know that the more people who are gathered, the more obnoxious a group can become. This is not limited to right wing conservatives.

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There has been an uprising in the plastics community about BPA being added to the plastic bottles. BPA also known as Bisphenol A, is a endocrine disruptor. That means it has some kind of negative effect on your hormone balance.

The bottle company Sigg became so popular by letting people know about BPA and its dangers while attacking the makers of polycarbonate water bottle makers. Their marketing strategy was to blame these companies for BPA in their bottles and to let the consumers know that the bottles were leaking the chemical into whatever liquid was being put in the bottle.

So it turns out that until August of last year, Sigg’s water bottles were actually produced with BPA liners. Representatives for the company always said that the company’s water based epoxy liner was never found to actually be leaching BPA when they tested the liners, but no one really ever knew that the liners had BPA in them. It just came to light in the last few days that the bottles actually contained the chemical.

I find that this entire situation can be easily avoided by drinking water from a glass. Glasses are reusable and don’t contain BPA because they’re glass and not…well, plastic.

Water bottles made of stainless steel have become quite popular in the past few months since the explosion of the information coming out about BPA. However, I find that these types of reusable water bottles are difficult to wash, even in the dishwasher. I’m just afraid that they don’t get clean all the way.

Oil prices have been on a roller coaster ride over the past few months. It appears as though it can’t really make up its mind as to where it wants to go. It has been hovering between $60 and $70 a barrel for some time, but has more recently been settling just above $71 a barrel.

However, today oil fell below the $66 a barrel mark when investors became worried about demand for crude will very slowly recover. Even with the good economic growth data coming out of Japan, oil and stocks decided to take a dive today.

The benchmark crude for delivery in September fell down to $65.88, a decrease of $1.63 in European electronic trading. This was after it fell $3.01 to $67.51 on Friday.

So of course, this typically means that you’ll start seeing another decline at the pump. With the national average hovering around $2.60 a gallon, gas is still a lot cheaper than the same time last year, but any decline in the cost is a welcome price reduction.

Ever since the beginning of the summer, commodity prices have increased a lot, which isn’t exclusive to oil, but the increase includes metals and other commodities that have decreased dramatically since last summer’s bubble burst.

I can imagine, though, that the decrease in the price of oil will cause OPEC to do something to “alter” the cost.

You would think that we would learn something from our bubbles bursting every time we see some kind of “new” money making thing that catches on. However, this isn’t the case. As a matter of fact, as a capitalistic nation, we tend to try to make money the greediest and fastest ways imaginable. In the case of the recent housing bubble, there were a lot of shady business practices that were happening to lead up to the burst.

So what are some of the things that economists are looking to in order to try to figure out what the next bubble will be?

Number one on the list might just be gun sales. While some Americans are anticipating anti-gun legislation to be passed down from Congress, they are in the stores buying the guns and ammunition up. There have been many places across the country that have simply run out of ammunition and factories can’t keep up with demand. Many guns have already started to ascend in value and the trend is expected to continue.

I find that the gun sales thing has no merit simply because it’s scared consumers driving up the prices themselves. This is all thanks to what these people are seeing as severe gun control and they are creating false demand for the products. Most of the fears will not subside unless they have another gun-loving Republican in office.

Another item that may soon be finding itself in a bubble is incandescent light bulbs in Europe. The European Union has banned the old, traditional light bulbs and wants everyone to switch over to the CFLs or other energy efficient types of lights. The ban has caused many of the consumers in those nations to begin hoarding the light bulbs in anticipation of the ban. Companies that produce these light bulbs have seen a huge increase in demand, and in September, when the law goes into effect, the bubble will burst and these companies will have to start churning out the energy efficient bulbs instead.

Thanks to a drying up of endowments, higher education may be another one of those bubbles to watch and its happening now. Some colleges rely heavily on endowments and many schools aren’t getting the money that they were even a year ago. This has caused overdependence on the endowments and colleges are really feeling the pinch now.

Maybe sometime far in the future alternative energy will become a bubble and it too will burst. For this to happen there has to be an update of the energy grid on a national level and there also has to be a new way of getting credits for tapping into green energy sources.

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FedEx is really trying to push its green technology and sustainability with an announcement that came out on Friday that the company will be installing the United States’ largest rooftop solar array. The project is slated to take place at the company’s Woodbridge, NJ distribution hub. The hub is 340,000 square feet.

Fed Ex hopes to install 12,400 panels. The panels will generate 2.42 maga watts of solar energy and it will cover almost 3.3 acres of roof space.

FedEx has employed BP Solar to get involved in the massive project. BP will also be providing the panels as well as the equipment for the solar systems.

If FedEx is able to pull off the huge project, it will result in a reduction of close to 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year. This is the equivalent to more than 340 passenger cars simply taken off the road for an entire year or 211,900 gallons of gasoline saved, 259 households not using electricity for one year, or 13 acres of woodland saved from deforestation.

Unfortunately, even though the project is biggest solar project to ever be made into reality in the United States, it will only generate 2.6 million kilowatt hours of electricity for the hub every year. This only equates to around 30% of the company’s annual energy needs; at this hub alone. In order to generate enough power for the entire hub to function, it would need an additional 8 acres of roof room. At this time, FedEx simply doesn’t have the space to accommodate those needs.

It can be said that while it will only be generating and supplying 30% of the energy needs of the hub, it is making an enormous effort and is stepping in the right direction toward a greener company. It could make better use of the solar panels if it were to make the hub more efficient on the inside also.

Overall, I believe I would like to see the company try to find more fuel efficient trucks or use some other type of fuel for the vehicles rather than using diesel fuel or gasoline to fuel the trucks. This is where the majority of FedEx’s carbon footprint comes from and while the solar panel array is a wonderful step in the right direction, I don’t know if they have the right idea. At least they are trying to do more than other companies are right now.

Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer and with that title it has a lot of room to demand certain things from its suppliers. The retail giant is now demanding that suppliers measure the environmental cost of making their products so it can calculate and post an eco-rating for the items.

While it is quite an ambitious project, it will likely cause other retailers and companies to redesign products in the future to be more environmentally conscious. Those environmentally conscious shoppers won’t likely see the eco ratings on products for many years, but the fact that Wal-Mart is taking an initiative is likely to still stir the competition.

In the first phase of the program, Wal-Mart will give suppliers a 12 question quiz about things like water usage. There are currently 12 universities working to create this quiz and gather scientific data.

The move coincides with Congress talking about possibly putting environmental labels on items. However, getting Wal-Mart to do it before it even hits the floor would get it done in a much faster manner.

Retail industry consultant Burt P. Flickinger III said he applauds the program but worries how it will affect suppliers. New labeling and product redesign can increase a product’s cost by 1 percent to 3 percent, he said.

“Suppliers are going to have to absorb the cost increases,” he said.

Flickinger also said the new ratings will add value in environmentally conscious regions like California and New England. But shoppers in other areas who focus more keenly on low prices may not appreciate it as much.

Wal-Mart has been seen as a corporate bully in the past to get things done their way, and it hasn’t always been in the best interest of the consumer, but with the retailer looking to get suppliers to do this, then not only is is good for the consumer, but it’s good for the environment.

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Airplanes are expensive. In my opinion, they’re expensive to fly on, they’re expensive to maintain, they’re expensive to staff, and they’re expensive to fill up with jet fuel. So, while the airline industry is hurting from the current recession, they are all trying to find ways to cut back on the cost of jet fuel to make the most out of the tickets they are selling.

MSNBC has an article out on its website that uses American Airlines and Scott Turner as an example. Turner is an employee of American Airlines that is used to try to make sure the airline uses all of its fuel efficiently as possible. He is the manager of flight operations efficiency and he can hear money being spent. The program he runs, Fuel Smart, is trying to save the company money.

When jet fuel cost around $3.85 a gallon last July (when the article was written), it cost the airline in the neighborhood of $77,000 to fill up a Boeing 767, a plane that is typically used for cross country trips.

So, this is when airlines started putting in first checked bag fees. The reason? For every pound of weight the plane can eliminate, the company saves 14,000 gallons of fuel a year. When the baggage fees were announced, the airline also started reducing the amount of water on board, putting new food carts in the cabins that weighed 17 pounds less, and using decals on the exterior of the plane instead of paint (which would trip 400 pounds off each plane). It also took steps to move weight in the plane around. There is a load-planning department that tells baggage handlers how to put bags on the plane to make the plane like a “seesaw” and it has the most fuel efficient center of gravity.

While that may not sound like things that are going to save the company as much as it costs to work on, if you move the center of gravy back 11 inches on a MD-80, .5% fuel is saved and on an annual basis that equates to $10 million according to Penny Williamson, the manager of the load planning department.

I kind of wonder if airlines are still doing things to help reduce the amount of fuel that each jet uses. I do know that they are using smaller planes and more connections than they used to. I used to be able to book a flight on US Airways from Memphis to Washington D.C. and fly on a Boeing 727, but now the same flight can only be taken on a regional jet and it stops in Charlotte, NC.

In an attempt to compete with Windows, Google announced an open source operating system for the PC that will be released later this year. The name will go along with the company’s already popular Chrome browser; Chrome OS.

It is intended to be a quick staring OS and the central focus is to support the Chrome browser. Applications will mostly run inside the browser. This will make the web a main component of the operating system; compared to Windows where the “desktop” is the main component of the operating system.

The idea of running applications inside the web browser is called “cloud computing.” Cloud computing is where the computer has a connection to the internet at all times and data is stored “in the cloud” (remotely) and the information processing happens between the browser and remote servers. This is how many applications on the iPhone run.

Chrome OS will be initially meant for netbooks and will begin being installed on new netbooks by the second half of 2010. While it will take that long for computers to already come with the OS built in, the code for Chrome OS will be released under an open source license by the end of 2009.

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. [...] Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates,” said a blog post from Google.

If you look at all the things we already do through the internet browser, like check our email, play on Facebook applications, or listen to Pandora while we’re working, you can easily see how a company would want to get into a project like Google is taking on.

Last year, especially during heavy political advertising, billionaire T. Boone Pickens advertised on every major network about his plan to eliminate or reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil. His plan included installing nearly 700 wind turbines in the Texas panhandle over a space of land that was just over 200,000 acres.

Today the energy tycoon has decided not to go forth with the plan and his $2 billion (plus nearly $60 million in advertising) investment has turned sour.

“When I start receiving those turbines, I’ve got to … like I said, my garage won’t hold them,” Pickens said. “They’ve got to go someplace.”

The issues faced with the building of the wind farm is due to not being able to get the power created by the wind to customers. Pickens said that he hoped to construct a system of his own, but “technical problems” arose from the project.

The “Pickens Plan” was announced a year ago and while he has spent over $60 million on advertising and promotional events for the plan, it appears as though he is one step from giving up the project altogether. He says that some of the turbines will go in the Texas panhandle, but what about the rest of the turbines? I suppose he is just going to continue to look for a buyer for the massive machines?

He wanted to finish the four step project in 2014 and be producing 4,000 megawatts of energy through the system. If it were to go as to plan, that would be enough to power more than a million houses. Over the course of the plan, however, it was expected to cost $12 billion.

When he introduced his plan, because it focused on something that is new and trendy in my opinion, I felt that he was really just jumping on the bandwagon and trying to make a lot of money off it; after all, this man is a “legendary oilman.”

So, even though he says that he wants the turbines to go into a farm somewhere in California and other places around the country, it looks as though the picture at the top of the post is going to be less and less likely to be seen around the Texas panhandle as long as it’s sponsored by Pickens.

In my home, the electric bill jumps up to over double what it is in the winter because of all the extra electricity being used by the AC and other things. While I don’t think you can eliminate your electricity bill (as long as you stay on the grid), you can do a few things to help slow down the drain that your bill has on your wallet.

You really have to start looking at all the major energy sucking appliances. The worst ones include the dryer (for your clothes), you can replace it by air drying your clothes outside on a line, not only will it save you money but your clothes may end up lasting longer. Also, washing your clothes in cold water versus hot water will save on your water heater bill, the exception being really funky clothes caked in mud or some other kind of foreign substance.

Electric stoves are also a major energy drain, it makes it hotter in the house so your air conditioner has to work harder, you can help cut down on this part of your bill by cooking outside on the grill. Ovens also have the same effect on your air conditioner and your wallet, I have started using a toaster oven for things that will fit just to help cut down on how often and for how long I have to turn on the “big” oven.

You also really need to avoid what people are calling energy vampires. These are the electronics that area always using energy even when you’re not using them like Playstations. You can decrease the amount they use by putting them on a power strip and making sure the strip is turned off. You can cut the power supply to your [husband's/kid's] Playstation and TV at the same time and they won’t be able to drain anymore power.

Also, when it comes to kids, you should find ways to entice them to turn off the lights, tv, etc when they leave a room. Once your children can start walking it seems that they can find ways to use electricity and forget how to “turn things off.” It is the same with open doors in the house, you just have to keep a watchful eye out for it. Having a “crack” in a door can let out a lot of the work that the a/c has been doing all day trying to keep your house cool.

Whenever you look at the overall economy and get discouraged, remember that there are a few upsides to the economy being in the gutter.

First, as a while, we’re borrowing less and putting away more. I suppose that we’ve all been a bit burned by not living within our means. As the credit crunch collapsed the world of the credit markets, people began to actually save more money. Yes, there are still plenty of people out there that are having a hard time getting monthly bills paid due to the high credit card payments they have incurred, but overall savings are up for everyone.

Even with gas prices down, we are actually driving less. When gas prices hit record highs last summer, people took notice and curbed their driving habits. Some of it actually stuck and now that gas prices are just over half what they were a year ago, the roads are still a bit emptier and people are carpooling and finding other ways to get from place to place.

Consumers are actually wasting less when it comes to necessities. Everyone is squeezing the last bit of shampoo out of the bottle and wearing shoes that they would have likely thrown away a long time ago. Consumers are shopping at thrift stores more to save money too; so they’re also using up what someone else didn’t. Thrift stores like Goodwill or the Salvation Army are actually running out of items faster than items are donated.

Out of the new home construction, smaller homes are being built. This goes back to wasting less. With smaller homes, we use less electricity and other resources. We’re saving money with smaller homes and leaving a smaller footprint on the earth. The average size for a new home that was being constructed has decreased for the first time in 10 years by 11 percent or nearly 300 square feet. Smaller houses also means that we’re using less resources to actually build the houses; there is less wood, wiring, and piping.

Finally, people are actually eating healthier. Red meat sales are down while the sales of poultry, fruits, and vegetables are up. Consumers are shopping more at local farmers’ markets, where produce is not only fresher, but is also typically cheaper than stores like Wal-Mart. This is also a great way for local businesses to start picking up. When people purchase more at farmers’ markets, they are putting the money back into the local economy.

A disruption in the supply of oil could cause serious problems for the United States economy. Rather than an actual dependence on foreign oil, the supply of oil and the price increase that would happen as a result are actually a “national security” problem.

Keith Crane, a senior economist at Rand said that a drop in the supply of oil across the globe would start a rise in oil prices and “significantly affect the United States, no matter how much or how little oil the United States imports.”

The Rand study looked at links between oil and national security.

We have already seen what can happen if the price of oil goes up 100% from where it is right now, to back over $4 a gallon; everything gets more expensive, not just oil. The problem with that is if something were to happen now, many wouldn’t be able to afford anything. In a worst case scenario, more people would go unemployed because they simply could not afford to even make it to work.

There were moderate risks included with the benefits from higher revenues to oil exporting countries such as Venezuela that can be seen as rogue countries. Of course there is always a risk associated when you’re talking about countries like Venezuela or Iran; the countries have a long track record of being outrageous and hasty in decision making. More money means that they can do more irrational things. Higher revenues to organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah would also cause quite a problem due to terrorist activities.

There were four policies recommended by the researchers to help with the global supply of oil if something were to happen. First, to impose a form of price control or rationing during a supply disruption, then examining domestic oil fields that have been off-limits in the past, helping develop green, alternative energy, and keeping the price of such forms of energy low when compared to the price of oil, and finally to impose an excise tax on oil that would help try to minimize the growth in demand for oil.

As I said, the last time a spike in oil happened, it was right before the economy really went south (even though we were already technically in a recession). Since then, oil prices have fallen dramatically, and while gas is back above $2 a gallon, it is still much easier to stomach than gas above $4 a gallon.

There are a few things that every one does every once in a while that does not save any money or help the environment.
Buying bottled water is one of those things.

There are so many other things that you can do than buy a bottle of water with your dollar (or two if you’re buying Evian or Fuji). In my opinion, bottled water is an expensive fad that the bottling companies make more than $30 billion worldwide on. In 2006, bottled water surpassed coffee and milk in volume sales just behind sodas.

One of the things about buying bottled water is that most bottled water actually comes straight from the tap of the bottling companies. In 2005, the NRDC tested 1,000 bottles of 103 brands that made bottled water and found out that some of the brands were contaminated, actually about a third of the bottled waters had levels of contamination. The chemicals and other contaminants that were found in the water included organic chemicals and ARSENIC (in one sample that exceeded limits that are considered allowable under the bottled water industry).

If you’re not getting chemicals in your water then you’re likely getting some other kind of bacteria based on the fact that this tap water sits in the bottle for months (if not longer). I have actually seen pictures from blogs across the internet of “objects” that have shown up in bottled water (including Vitamin Water) that just look gross; and most of it comes from the water settling and sitting on a shelf for months at a time.

Not only could bottled water be potentially harmful to you because of the levels of contamination, it could also be quite harmful to the environment. Most people do not recycle their plastic bottles, and they take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to break down in a landfill. If they are recycling, then it wastes even more fossil fuels to actually break down the plastic to recycle it.

So what is the alternative?

Well, my family has started to save money (and the environment) by buying a Brita pitcher and making our own “bottled” water by using BPA-free bottles. If you don’t want to try to find a BPA free plastic, an aluminum bottle will do the same trick. You can make GALLONS of bottled water on one filter, and really, the filters only cost between $6-$10 each. If your family enjoys the lack of taste in bottled water, I’m sure that filtered water will also get their attention, and it will end up saving you a bunch of money in the end.

So do you think that painting your roof white would make a difference in your energy bill by a little? How about overall, reducing your carbon footprint?

Living in the South means that it is hot all summer. As they say: Mississippi has two seasons, Christmas and summer (or sometimes just hot depending on who you’re talking to). It is always hot, and it is always humid through the sweltering summer months of the year. Right now, in the end of May, it is almost unbearable outside due to the humidity.

However, the United States Energy Secretary Steven Chu said today that the Obama administration wants to paint roofs in the States white. White is, and always has been, a reflecting color. It makes sense considering if you were out in the mid-day heat of August and were wearing white, it wouldn’t be as unbearable as if you were wearing black or another dark color. Mr. Chu gave the speech at the climate change symposium in London on Tuesday.
Mr. Chu said that making roads and roofs a light color, such as white, could be the same as taking every single car off the roads (all over the world) for 11 years.

Here’s the biggest issue I have with the change, if someone is to change the color of their roof to white for the summer months to reduce cooling costs as well as to reduce the carbon footprint of each individual, then what about the winter months?

While there is a definite benefit during the summer, the sun helps warm my house in the winter so that my husband and I don’t use as much heat.

I have often wondered why roofs weren’t white to begin with. I have seen many roofs in pale colors, including strange shades of green, but I now wonder what the negative effect will be in the winter. I think that this would be a good idea for people who live even further south than I do. Perhaps those who live in very tropical climates would be better suited for the roof painting.

At the same time, knowing the consequences in the winter months, I would be willing to have a pale colored roof to help reduce the costs in the summer. Besides, most people burn natural gas in the winter and natural gas are better for the environment than the coal that our electric company goes through to cool and give light to our home.

Would you be willing to paint your roof (or put on pale colored shingles) to help reduce your energy costs in the summer? If so, where do you live and what’s the climate like?

What do your summer plans include?

Question:

Well, summer is upon us. Yesterday was Memorial Day, the unofficial kick off of Summer 2009. Considering gas prices are on the rise and we’re still facing some pretty heavy duty unemployment numbers, what do your summer plans include?

Answer:

Personally, my summer plans include finishing up school then working to find a job. At this point, any job may be just fine for me.

Gas prices are on the rise, so going away for a week or so may be out of the question for some (and I am even thinking twice about a trip to Florida at the end of the summer).

I think this may be another one of those “staycation” years. Like last year when gas was $4 a gallon, many families opted to stay home rather than go far away to vacation. That may happen again this year.

This past Thursday, Chrysler asked a New York bankruptcy court to end its franchise agreements with 789 dealerships across the country and informed them that they would no longer be receiving stock, basically closing them. These 789 dealerships will soon be going out of business. Like any business that has just lost all life support, you will find many going out of business sales, even though these dealerships are not actually calling them such.

The dealers have just a few weeks to sell out their stock of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep or risk losing thousands of dollars on them and their only option is to give current car buyers a serious deal. “You’ve got some very good negotiating power,” said Dave Champion, director of automobile testing for Consumer Reports magazine. “[Dealers are] really looking to shift this inventory. It’s just stacking up all around them.”

Champion said that it’s important to find out about incentives and hold backs, which are payments the dealer gets when it sells a car. “It’s not a bad idea to go in there with a low ball price…. The longer you wait, the less options you’ll have.”

Both General Motors and Chrysler say they have too many dealers for too few sales. They have wanted to get rid of less valuable showrooms so they would not exist at the detriment of more valuable dealers. The cuts would allow the stronger dealers higher profits and more money to spend on marketing, facilities and personnel, making them more competitive, also fitting in with the bankruptcy standards they must abide by in the way of effective cost cutting measures.

Fear is affecting axed dealers as they try to figure out what to do with expensive inventories that weren’t selling well even before the bankruptcy move last month. They’ve told us that the inventory is our problem,” said Keith Hollern, one of the owners of a Dodge dealer in Windber, Pa. “Want to buy one? We’re having a fire sale.”

Dealers generally borrow money to buy their inventories, then repay the loans and make a profit when the vehicles are sold. Unfortunately, Chrysler sales were down 46 percent the first quarter, so many dealers have been paying only interest for months. Even if the vehicles are sold at cost, dealers still lose thousands in interest payments.

“Chrysler doesn’t have the money to buy back the vehicles,” said company spokeswoman Kathy Graham, “but it also doesn’t want to leave dealers in a bind or see the inventory flood the market at bargain prices.” This has caused most of the dealers to sign a deal with GMAC Financial Services, Chrysler’s new finance company, to give loans to remaining dealers that Chrysler plans to keep so they can buy the 789 dealers’ unsold inventory and sell it themselves. The deal, though, doesn’t include about 4,000 2008 models still on the lots that after the summer will not sell.

Graham said those 789 dealers cut from the company will get Chrysler warranty reimbursement and sales incentives such as rebates and low-interest financing until June 9. After that, they won’t have benefits on either. That means the dealers have a high motivation to sell off their inventory before their franchise agreements end. Chrysler incentives on some vehicles can run as high as $6,000 or more. Without them, dealers who have been cut won’t be competitive with standing dealers who can comfortably offer discounts.

“They’re not giving us a lot of time,” said Michael Wolf, a Plymouth, Wisconsin Chrysler dealer whose franchise was among those that won’t be renewed. “They’re neglecting their liability of taking new inventory. They’re not taking anything back.”

“What’ll end up happening, if a dealer wants to stay in business, they’ll probably end up just selling it below cost just to get rid of it,” said Erich Merkle, an automotive industry analyst from Grand Rapids, Michigan. “You’ll probably be able to find Chrysler vehicles perhaps at under the dealer cost.”

Dale Horn, owner of a dealership in Malvern, Arkansas, who was one of the 789 that were cut, isn’t counting on any help from Chrysler to unload his inventory of 34 vehicles. “Right now, I don’t have much confidence that they will do what they say. Nobody’s called me yet saying they’re going to try to help me,” Horn said.

Waiting until the closure deadline might give buyers even greater buying power. Insiders say that inventory is beginning to dry up with word of the pending bargains. Waiting too long may be a detriment, stopping a buyer from getting their ideal car at their ideal bargain.

At the risk of bringing on more bad economic news, the experts have been saying that General Motors will probably be heading to Chapter 11 bankruptcy since the economy began to unravel last year. This comes right after competitor Chrysler LLC filed for bankruptcy protection as well. More then ever, the experts who are “in the know” are screaming it. Despite the rescue payments in late 2008 and early 2009, they claim that General Motors is just in too deep.

In order to make it through, outside of the rescue payments, General Motors will have to somehow swindle its bondholders out of $27 million of debt for 10 percent of their stock, which is arguably the riskiest it has ever been since the invention of the automobile. On top of that, they will have to work out deals with the union, who has an ironclad contract, close more factories, cut or sell brands, and force hundreds of independent GM dealers out of business.

Bondholders are reluctant to take the deal because the government and UAW are getting far bigger stakes in the company, said Kevin Tynan, an industry analyst for Argus Research in New York. Tynan also made sure to comment that he thought bankruptcy is ‘inevitable’ for the Detroit-based automaker.

The worst part about all of this is that they have to make it work in just three short weeks. They face a June 1 deadline the government set as part of the ‘bailout’ agreement. “I just don’t see how it’s possible, given all of the pieces,” said Stephen J. Lubben, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law who specializes in bankruptcy. Although GM intends to restructure out of court by making deals and changes, experts say they are all but in the trap now, and will soon have to restructure supervised by the courts. GM has also thrown around the idea of selling out 62 billion new stock shares, 100 times the 611 million currently on the market.

Last week, new GM CEO Fritz Henderson basically said that they will file for bankruptcy in an expeditious fashion if the need for bankruptcy presents itself. This is all assuming that the threat of bankruptcy is not a brilliant ruse to make the stock-debt swap more appealing. After all, they need a 90% bondholder agreement to make a move that was not government agreed. GM reported a $6 billion loss for the first quarter alone, as more of a reminder that bankruptcy is still in the list of top choices, and maybe the only viable option. After all, consumers have been avoiding purchasing from a corporation that has been flirting with bankruptcy for nearly a year.

At this point, GM needs to resolve the uncertainty and get in and out of bankruptcy as quickly as possible, Lubben said. Under chapter 11 bankruptcy, General Motors can continue business without interruption while restructuring under supervision of the courts. Cutting dealers also remains a huge hurdle, with GM hoping to shed 2,600 of its 6,246 dealerships by 2010. Dealers are protected by state franchise laws, and trying to shed them outside of bankruptcy would result in either millions of dollars in payments or multiple lengthy lawsuits, according to Lubbin. GM has also begun to temporarily close 13 assembly plants for up to 11 weeks through mid-July in an effort to control inventory, ultimately controlling spending.

At the beginning of the ‘bailouts,’ this author was less than optimistic that the government, or anyone else would be able to help General Motors out of their problem because they are too deep in debt and unrealistic contracts they cannot keep. Not only is bankruptcy inevitable due to these factors, but if the economy is supposed to come back strong at all, bankruptcy is best for everyone. General Motors will renegotiate contracts, especially with the UAW, time will be allowed to strengthen assets and new automotive prototypes will be designed. When General Motors comes out of court supervision, they will be stronger than ever. How can the economy come back any stronger than that?

A disruption in the supply of oil could cause serious problems for the United States economy. Rather than an actual dependence on foreign oil, the supply of oil and the price increase that would happen as a result are actually a “national security” problem.

Keith Crane, a senior economist at Rand said that a drop in the supply of oil across the globe would start a rise in oil prices and “significantly affect the United States, no matter how much or how little oil the United States imports.”

The Rand study looked at links between oil and national security.

We have already seen what can happen if the price of oil goes up 100% from where it is right now, to back over $4 a gallon; everything gets more expensive, not just oil. The problem with that is if something were to happen now, many wouldn’t be able to afford anything. In a worst case scenario, more people would go unemployed because they simply could not afford to even make it to work.
There were moderate risks included with the benefits from higher revenues to oil exporting countries such as Venezuela that can be seen as rogue countries. Of course there is always a risk associated when you’re talking about countries like Venezuela or Iran; the countries have a long track record of being outrageous and hasty in decision making. More money means that they can do more irrational things. Higher revenues to organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah would also cause quite a problem due to terrorist activities.

There were four policies recommended by the researchers to help with the global supply of oil if something were to happen. First, to impose a form of price control or rationing during a supply disruption, then examining domestic oil fields that have been off-limits in the past, helping develop green, alternative energy, and keeping the price of such forms of energy low when compared to the price of oil, and finally to impose an excise tax on oil that would help try to minimize the growth in demand for oil.

As I said, the last time a spike in oil happened, it was right before the economy really went south (even though we were already technically in a recession). Since then, oil prices have fallen dramatically, and while gas is back above $2 a gallon, it is still much easier to stomach than gas above $4 a gallon.

Several of these products, however, contain corn-based ethanol, which the environmental community has targeted for being neither cost effective nor eco-friendly. Many items in the Green Works line also include sodium lauryl sulfate-which the company describes as a “coconut-based cleaning agent.” That may be true, but, coconut or not, SLS has long been criticized by the scientific community for its not-so-natural effects; the American College of Toxicology described SLS as a known skin irritant in a report published more than 20 years ago.

A few of the wares in the line also contain synthetic dyes, which were included because of what Clorox Company representative Aileen Zerudo described as “consumer feedback.”

It seems kind of funny that the rep for the company said that consumer feedback was the reason that Clorox changed from a fragrance free dye free formula…after all another “green” brand, Seventh Generation, has a line of “free” products that are selling quite well.

The good thing about Green Works is that the Clorox website fully discloses all the ingredients in the products and actually is a bit more environmentally friendly than other products on the market.

Source

In an attempt to generate some $100 million in annual revenue, Delta (NYSE: DAL) said it will charge customers a $50 fee to check a second bag on international flights starting July 1. The so-called “unbundling” of services, which includes baggage fees, has been a strong source of revenue for the carrier. So-called “other” net revenue grew 18 percent, or $137 million, largely from baggage fees.

The 747-200 freighters were acquired through the carrier’s merger with Northwest Airlines Corp. Company officials said the planes would likely be sold.

The airline reported a net loss of $794 million and a loss per share of 96 cents, compared with a loss of $6.4 billion and a loss per share of $16.15 in the first quarter of 2008. It is the sixth consecutive quarterly loss for Delta.

Delta’s performance beat analysts’ expectations of about a $1 per share loss.

As another cost cutting measure, Delta plans to ground 50 jets, which includes its entire fleet of 14 Boeing 747-200 freighter aircraft beginning December 31, 2009 due to inefficiency. It will also be grounding 30 Bombardier CRJ aircraft and several “less efficient” Boeing 757 and MD-88.

The grounding of these aircraft is not the problem I have with what is going on at Delta, it is the fact that the company feels the need to charge the consumer more and more for a service they received yesterday at a cheaper price that bothers me.

Hey Delta, take a page from Southwest and perhaps you’ll end up actually turning a profit.

The agency said that the monthly average will likely peak around $2.30 a gallon, much less than last year’s $3.81 a gallon.

Part of the reason for the decline is last year U.S. crude production declined by 110,000 barrels a day. This year they’re expecting the first increase in domestic production since 1991 by producing an extra 440,000 barrels a day.

The report also states that crude oil prices will average $53 a barrel this year and about $63 next year.

The Lone Star state’s 7,118 megawatts dwarfs Iowa’s 2,791 megawatts and California’s 2,517 megawatts, but wind power has grown into a key part of the energy infrastructure in Minnesota and Iowa, where each state generates more than 7 percent of their electricity from turbines, the American Wind Energy Association study said.

States are trying to lure wind energy companies and the jobs that come with them, especially with new federal requirements that will require more power from alternative sources in coming years.

While jobs in the wind industry jumped by 70 percent to 85,000 last year, the association’s chief executive warned that more must be done to prevent the industry from stalling.

Source

If an institution, such as my college, would turn off 1,000 computers every night then the university could save $28,000 a year. That could be used to buy scantrons for the students or for professors to print out notes for class.

The amount of energy wasted by leaving the computer on overnight (across the country) is equal to 20 million tons of C02, roughly the amount produced by 4 million cars on the road.

I think we should all take a stand against wasting energy and I will vow to turn off my laptop every night. Even if it takes more than 10 minutes to load in the morning, it’s not worth the lasting impression I leave on the environment from the inconvenience.

In February the CPI increased back up to 0.4% for the month. The increase in the percentage came on the heels of an increase in the price of oil, which has been fluctuating between $40 and $47 a barrel for the last month and a half.

The price of oil is such a part of consumerism that it directly affects the cost of any goods or services we use or bring into our homes. So, even though hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs every month, because a group of oil tycoons across the world have made decisions to make themselves wealthier, everyone suffers.

The “overproduction” makes up for just over a million barrels a day.

In the short term, the cut in production would increase the price of oil, however in the long run, cutting oil production will decrease demand and lead people to find other forms of energy. I believe cutting production now will doom the oil business later.

It sounds like OPEC is looking for a target price of $70 a barrel. However, with the “shaky” global economy, many people in parts of the world can’t afford oil, which is sometimes seen as a luxury rather than a necessity.

Until the global economy perks up, oil demand will be low.