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Here’s a shocker: Electricity bills are heading up. Way up.

Utilities across the USA are raising power prices up to 29%, mostly to pay for soaring fuel costs, but also to build new plants and refurbish an aging power grid.

Even more dramatic rate increases are ahead. The mounting electric bills will further squeeze households struggling with spiraling gasoline prices.

“Consumers now face a tough reality on electricity,” says Mark Cooper of Consumer Federation of America.
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General Motors Corp said on Wednesday it was partnering with Clean Energy Fuels Corp on a new hydrogen refueling station in Los Angeles that the companies hope will be the first of many.

GM is one of a handful of car companies developing fuel cell-powered vehicles, which run on hydrogen and emit only water vapor. Fuel cell vehicles are being touted as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the United States’ dependency on pricey crude oil.

In a statement, the two companies said they are discussing opportunities to expand the first station, which will be located near Los Angeles International Airport, into a network of hydrogen stations used to refuel fuel cell vehicles.
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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sought to tap into Americans’ anxiety over high gasoline prices by pledging to seek a windfall profits tax on U.S. oil companies if elected.
“I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills,” the Illinois senator said on Monday according to Reuters.

On Tuesday, the big oil companies with the help of Senate Republicans showed the nation who’s boss. The Senate slapped aside an energy package that would have imposed a 25% tax on unreasonable profits on the five largest oil companies who squeezed a staggering $36 billion profit out of consumers pockets this first quarter, it would have given government the leeway to address oil market speculation, opened the way for antitrust actions against the OPEC oil cartel (the forever oil lobby and administration stymied NOPEC legislation) and made energy price gouging a federal crime.

In doing so, Congress has once again shown how out of touch it is with the feelings and desires of its constituents for forceful action. And once again this administration, together with the oil lobby, has been the cheerleader for the vested and powerful interests of the oil industry.
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With the average cost of diesel fuel edging toward $5 per gallon, one California county is trying to protect itself from a growing rash of diesel thefts.

In just the past few months, Kern County, Calif., has lost more than $280,000 worth of fuel to thieves, said police, although the problem is not exclusive to the area.

Kern County Detective Gary William called this an epidemic that won’t be getting better anytime soon. “I attribute it to the economy; I attribute it to the upswing of the price of fuel,” he said.

Police in Kern County, whose crops include potatoes and oranges, have set up a task force to combat the problem and are encouraging farmers and growers to report any thefts.
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Global financial markets open this week still in shock from Friday’s dramatic surge in oil prices and plunge in stock prices — and facing new doubts about the U.S. consumer’s ability to help spur a recovery in the struggling economy.

Asian stock markets were falling early today and the battered dollar continued to lose ground against other major currencies as investors braced for Wall Street’s starting bell.

There was a bit of relief in energy prices: Crude oil futures slipped $1.14 a barrel to $137.40 in electronic trading Sunday evening in New York. But that was just a sliver of the $10.75-a-barrel jump Friday to an all-time high of $138.54.

And in another reminder of what unprecedented oil prices are doing to Americans’ pocketbooks, AAA on Sunday said the nationwide average price of gasoline crept up to a record $4 a gallon — a level California already had surpassed.
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The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and international market regulators will meet next week in Washington to address concerns about possible manipulation in the energy markets.

The conference comes after the CFTC, under pressure from U.S. lawmakers who blame speculation for food and fuel inflation, announced a slew of measures to increase surveillance of energy and other commodity markets.

“In this time of rising energy prices and increasing cross-border and cross-market activity in the commodity markets, it is essential that international regulators coordinate to ensure that they are working as efficiently and effectively as possible to detect and deter manipulation in the global energy markets,” said CFTC enforcement director Gregory Mocek in a press release.
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