Price Of Gasoline May Have Peaked Already, Speaker Boehner Taken to Task On PTC, DOE Unveils New App Contest

Good News for the President - the price of gasoline may have already hit a peak for 2012, according to a growing body of energy analysts.  High supplies of oil and gas, coupled with sluggish economic news coming from the U.S., Europe and China, suggest the price climb may be over, one analyst tells POLITICO. Another notes that the rate of the increase in prices (the second derivative, if you will) has been slowing for weeks.  And Richard Newell, former head of EIA under President Barack Obama and now a professor at Duke University, says current projections for wholesale gasoline show gas prices falling 40 cents a gallon by Election Day.

Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm took on Speaker John Boehner in her latest Current newscast. Granholm chided Speaker Boehner for not supporting the 2% tax credit  legislation that helps large-scale wind-energy producers compete against heavily subsidized fossil fuel.  She pointed to the coalition of 369 organizations, representing thousands of American workerd who  recently sent the speaker a letter pleading with him to act. The National Governor’s Association sent Boehner another letter just in the past week, imploring him to move on this issue and even the US Chamber of Commerce has endorsed this legislation.   The bill provides 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour for utility-scale wind-power producers. Ironically, U.S. wind energy production is the sector where Boehner’s home state of Ohio has the distinction of being the fastest growing in the country.

The Department of Energy, in partnership with Pacific Gas& Electric, Itron, and Gridwise Alliance, kicked off its first-ever “Apps for Energy”  challenge on April 5, issuing an open invitation to innovative software developers to build new apps – for mobile phones, computers, tablets, software programs and more – that utilize data from major utility companies to help consumers and businesses use less energy and save money. Submissions must make use of Green Button electricity usage data, but can also include other data sets.