They say that virtue is its own reward, and Wolin-Levin president Robert B. Levin (shown here receiving a plaque from C2 Intl. president Hans Herrmann…Mr. Levin is on the right) agrees. By acting on his commitment to be environmentally responsible, he has been rewarded with substantial savings on his electric bill.

If this goes against conventional thinking about the economics of “going green,” then Cost Containment Intl. and Community Green Energy (CGE) think that it’s time for the conventional thinking to change.

Wolin-Levin has agreed to “green up” its electricity by purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from Community Green Energy equal to 100% of its annual use. Wolin-Levin will also purchase its electricity through a contract negotiated by Cost Containment, Intl.. This new contract will knock a substantial percentage off of Wolin-Levin’s energy bill.

Both the REC purchase and the new energy contract will help support CGE’s Chicagoland Green Energy Initiative, which has a goal to fund 1,000 new renewable green energy installations in the Chicagoland area. Initiative members fund the Initiative through their everyday business activities. C2 is a charter member of the Initiative, and with this new contract, Wolin-Levin joins them as a CGE supporter.

The REC purchase means that Wolin-Levin can claim their electric use is completely green, which gives them a substantial marketing advantage in the competitive luxury condo market. Their support of the Chicagoland Green Energy Initiative means they will also be helping to bring renewable green energy to their community. And the reduced energy bill shows that what’s good for the environment is good for business, as well.

“We all want to do the right thing when it comes to the environment,” says Levin. “Joining the Initiative and working with Cost Containment made it not just the right choice, but the obvious choice. We’re making Chicagoland a healthier place, and we’re saving money in the process. What’s not to like?”

This is the the kind of talk that Fritz Kreiss, the founder of Community Green Energy, like to hear. “We created CGE because we think green energy isn’t just good energy, it’s good business,” says Kreiss. “For too long, green energy has been pigeonholed as a moral issue. It’s not. America needs it, and America needs to be a leader in it.” CGE has created an economic model that uses traditional business incentives to spur investment in green energy. “Even in these tough times, the American economy is still the most powerful economic engine in history. There is plenty of money to invest in green. We just created a new way to aim enough of it in the right direction.”

That’s an approach that fits well with the Cost Containment Intl. approach. Our focus has always been on aiming your money in the right direction: back in your pocket. Community Green Energy offers an approach that turns a green commitment into a solid business advantage: a new twist on the classic win-win approach.

“Make no mistake: we have a profound belief in green energy,” says Kreiss. “But CGE wants to open the door to everybody. If you join your local Initiative because you have a personal commitment to green energy, that’s great. If you join your local Initiative because it helps you build your business, that’s also great. Just join.”

“Right now, a responsible manager has to make the bottom line their top priority” says Levin. “The traditional equation says green energy is a luxury you can’t afford. CGE and Cost Containment changed the equation. As an individual who has a commitment to a better environment, I’m really pleased. As a good manager, I’ve done my job. When someone offers you a plan like that, you take it.”

You can learn more about CGE at their web site…click here to go there, and you can learn more about RECs by clicking this link.

You go away for a week, you miss all the fun.

The NYMEX started the month of May by doing the one thing no one expected: experiencing a prolonged surge of buying. In the space of four days front month pricing, which had been threatening to scrape the $3 barrier, suddenly shot up to $4.50. It has cooled off a bit since then, settling down in the $4.20-4.30 range, but has found at least temporary support at this level.

Take a quick look at the fundamentals, and you will see that there’s no reason on earth this should have happened. Storage levels are at near-record levels, and it is predicted that they will remain there for the rest of the year, with an all-time high sitting in storage when we hit Winter 2009. There’s plenty of LNG out there looking for buyers, much of which will go into storage just to have somewhere to put it. Rig count is roughly half what it was when natural gas prices were at their peak, but the shutdown in production still has not caught up with the drop in demand. Spring weather is running mild to warm.

We’re afraid fundamentals aren’t going to help you on this one. Something much more simple happened.

Investors decided it was time to get optimistic about the economy, so they did.

And natural gas was where they did it.

This is not the first jump we’ve seen this year; as you may recall, investors overreacted to a bit of good news in the storage report about a month ago. That bump lasted right up to the next storage report, whereupon it promptly dropped like a stone. But that rise was, at least, a reaction to fundamentals. This rise has nothing to do with natural gas supply, and everything to do with speculators growing tired of sitting on zero-interest T bills and looking to get back into the game.

There’s plenty of analysis, and no agreement, on who is doing the buying. Some suspect this is large funds looking to take long-term positions with an eye toward 2010. Some have attributed it to the actions of a single energy fund. Some are attributing it hangovers from bad short positions at the end of April. But everyone’s talking investor psychology, and nobody’s talking natural gas supply and demand. Apparently, when you’re buying commodities, the commodity itself doesn’t always matter.

What this means to you. First off, our apologies. We’ve been trying to help you understand the NYMEX, and how prices move, in terms of the market fundamentals which have traditionally driven natural gas prices. It is becoming increasingly clear that, looking forward, this will have to be balanced more and more with a completely different set of factors. Perhaps we should have spent a bit less time on storage levels and rig counts, and more time checking “Mad Money.”

Which leads to the next question: how rational is the exuberance this time? Is the economy really in recovery? From our standpoint, the signs are good, but the progress is fragile. Job count continues to fall, and until the number of employed Americans begins to rise, it is difficult to speak of a real recovery. Perhaps, instead of looking for the bottom on NYMEX prices, this is the bottom we should be tracking. We’ll keep you posted.

Check the NYMEX

We interrupt our regularly scheduled discussion of energy efficiency because things got interesting this past week.

This is a weekly newsletter, and life in the NYMEX is measured in 15-minute increments, so we sometimes miss out on the pulse-pounding excitement that happens on the trading floor (indeed, much of the activity in 2008 was better described as pulse-stopping….). This past week was a case in point; in fact, the wrap up to this particular incident is playing out even as we write this.

If you’ve been following the NYMEX numbers and reading our commentary, a casual glance at yesterday’s close, listed below, is bound to provoke a response of “what the hey?….!” We’re up about 15% across the board from last week. This after months of constant drift downward.

Actually, that rise in price happened mostly during the space of a few hours last Thursday….while we were writing last week’s newsletter. After a short burst, prices pretty much stabilized for the week.

What happened?

Check last week’s weekly storage report, and you’ll see there was a withdrawal of 24 Bcf. Expectations in the industry had been for a withdrawal of around 30 Bcf. That 6 Bcf difference (don’t forget, we’re talking 6 Bcf out of 1,650 Bcf in storage, or about .36%) set off the price spike.

If you’re thinking “that’s nuts,” you’ve got a lot of company. Many experts were scratching their heads over it. There was some talk about natural gas prices “correcting” to match rises in oil prices, but that analysis felt a lot like grasping at straws.

However, add in what’s going on right now (see next paragraph), and we believe that there’s a clear lesson to be learned here.

Check out this week’s storage numbers, which were released at 10:30 EST this morning. Natural gas is back to being injected INTO storage. Care to guess how the NYMEX is reacting?

If you guessed that prices dropped right back under $4.00, then you’ve been paying attention. NYMEX may rally a bit before the day is done, but there was a precipitous drop (it looked a bit like the price fell off a cliff) immediately after the release of the report.

What this means to you. Have you ever watched the finals of the 100-meter dash at the Olympics? These elite athletes get over-excited and over-amped and “jump the gun” on the start.

You remember all those speculators who helped drive natural gas prices up into double figures last Summer? The ones who fled the market as prices dropped? They’re still out there. They’re still looking for quick and easy short-term profits. They consider themselves the elites of their field.

As the AIG situation showed us, the people who helped engineer our current financial troubles haven’t learned anything. They’re just waiting for the sign that it’s time to do exactly what they were doing before.

Last week, a bunch of these over-excited, over-amped investors jumped the gun. Just couldn’t risk being the second investor in when the market bottoms. They hung for a week, looked at this week’s report, and went “oops.”

Are you bottom watching? Are you looking for that “sure sign” that the market has hit bottom before you think about securing your next energy contract? If so, you’ve got a lot of company. And the company you’re keeping is much, much quicker than you are.

At Cost Containment Intl., we’re proud of how quickly we can expedite the bidding process, but compared to the 15-minute time span of the NYMEX, energy contracts move at a glacial pace. The bottom is not when you want to be making your move, because that price is going to be long gone before you’ve even seen your first offer. There are a lot of people out there ready and waiting to bid prices up again, and they’re getting pretty hair-trigger about it. You’ll still be sitting in the blocks while the other guys are halfway down the track.

Meanwhile, if you can get your head around a timeframe longer than 15 minutes….say, three years or more…it’s time to talk long-term energy strategy. Electric and natural gas providers are loosening up for contracts beyond 24 months. We’re not just talking your current contracts. We’re talking your next contract. Cost Containment Intl. is finding good opportunities beyond 2010, and you want to be in on them. Security is a nice place to be right now.

Trust us: this is one race that’s a lot more fun when you’re watching it from the stands.

Check the NYMEX

You know those annoying TV ads where some fast-talking pitchman is selling you some amazing product, but you have to PICK UP THE PHONE!!! and ACT NOW!!!!….don’t you just hate them?

Well…PICK UP THE PHONE!!! ACT NOW!!!

Sorry, but for the first time, I understand how those pitch guys feel. Planet NYMEX has given us a little gift, and I’d sure like to help you enjoy it.

I just got done saving a customer 22% in 2009 over their 2008 bill. Yesterday, February went off the board at $.4476/therm. In the weeks to come I’ll explain exactly how to understand the economic ramifications of this outcome. Right now, what it means is: we haven’t seen prices this low in many years. Right now, what it means is we’re positioned to give you the budget stability that energy savings of 20-25% in 2009 can bring you.

So…ACT NOW!!! phone calls, e-mails, text messages, faxes, smoke signals, passenger pigeons and paper airplanes are all acceptable forms of contact.

Okay, I’m going back to your regularly scheduled Kathie now. And for you folks who have already called me, boy, did you time it right!

You have all heard me refer to the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange). This week we will begin discussions on “Life on the Planet NYMEX”.

Why do we call the NYMEX a Planet? A planet has it’s own identity. It spins and changes direction often, creating it’s own eco-system/atmosphere. It relies on the universe but appears to be completely independent. We have seen the NYMEX react to changes in oil supply, the economy, the weather and apparently alien forces, which create volatility as well as surprises…unpleasant and otherwise.

Last year at this time we had the same amount of gas in national storage as we do now. Supply is strong. Not even sustained cold weather has been able to produce a rally, so prices should stay in this narrow range for while longer…maybe. Most of the people in the natural gas industry aren’t like you; they want prices to go up, and they’re working to make that happen. Production in the gulf has been cut because demand is down, and wellers are shutting down their marginal or unprofitable wells. Checked your local gas station lately? Prices WILL rise again. I really want you all to be sitting back and watching the show when that happens.

Check the NYMEX

You’ll note the one-day percentage gains in today’s NYMEX prices. Day-to-day volatility doesn’t change the fact that prices continue to fall and flirted with the sub-$5.00 range this week.

What this means to you. The natural gas market leaves us with a little gift to mark this holiday season. It appears that Cost Containment Intl. will continue to be finding deals and savings through the winter and into 2009.

And for this week, the best of the Season to everyone, and here’s hoping for a 2009 full of good cheer and good energy savings.

A short bit of trivia for a short week

We talk about “bull” and “bear” markets. Ever wonder why we call them that? The truth is, the terms have been around for so long (earliest citation of the term “bull market” dates back to 1891) that no one is sure of the origin. But here are some theories:

• In 18th century London, sellers of bearskins, also know as bearskin “jobbers,” would sell bearskins before the bears had actually been caught. They were, in effect, the original short sellers, selling bearskins they did not own in anticipation of falling prices, which would enable them to buy them later for an additional profit. This accounts for the “bear market,” at least.
• This one’s a bit of a stretch: the ancient term “bulla” which means bill, or contract. In a rising market, holders of “bullas” for commodities benefit. However in a falling market, the “bearers” of these commodity to be delivered benefit.
• Bulls and bears were commonly used in a sport (if you can call it that) called bull baiting and bear baiting. So they were considered natural antagonists.
• Again, a bit of a stretch here, but it relates to the way each animal attacks: a bull attacks upwards with its horns, while a bear swipes downwards with its paws.
• It relates to the perception that bears move about sluggishly, while bulls charge quickly. Never mind that a bear, at full speed, can outrun a horse!
• The word “bull” plays off the market’s returns being “full” whereas “bear” alludes to the market’s returns being “bare”.

If you know of a better explanation, give us a call at 800-436-3470.

Check the NYMEX