Tucker, Georgia, U.S.A. – With the launch of Gas Guru from YP, those on the go have a new companion when trying to find cheap gas and other necessities while on the road. Whether on a daily commute or summer road trip, the free mobile app can help users save money and sanity, by powering quick decisions about where to fuel up or make a pit stop for everything from coffee to a cash machine.

Rising gas prices are a pain at the pump, but finding fuel isn’t the only headache. Many apps for hitting the road are limited to information on gas prices and forget about all the stops in between. The time, gas and money wasted while circling around searching for cheap gas, a quick bite on the way home or an auto shop can add up. This is why Gas Guru is a must download.

App features make navigating everyday, on-the-go needs quick and easy:

The app can help find cheap gas nearby at a glance. Unlike other apps that simply list gas prices, Gas Guru calculates and highlights the best prices at stations nearby. Users can see prices by gas grade in either map or list view. No more filling the tank and discovering afterward that you could have saved a couple of bucks down the road.

The app will also compare gas prices at frequent locations. Gas Guru can be personalized to save locations like “home,” “work” or other favorite places, to easily compare the latest prices with a flick of the finger and quickly decide whether to fuel up now or later.

Daily detours are also quick and easy. Find restaurants, coffee, auto repair, roadside assistance, or ATMs nearby with a single tap. Search results are displayed alongside gas stations making it easy to lay out a plan for your stops. Call or get directions to your selected destinations.

“We developed Gas Guru to address a clear need for a mobile companion to make decisions about roadside necessities easier,” said David Williams, vice president of product management at YP. “Since we added a gas price feature to our flagship YP local search app last year, we’ve seen triple digit search growth for not only gas prices, but auto-related categories overall. This new purpose-based app expands our local search insights and technology platform to address the unique needs of those on the go.

Smartphone users, download the free location-based app from Google Play or iTunes.

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Only two states in the United States offer full-service gas: New Jersey and Oregon. New Jersey made it illegal for consumers to pump their own gas in 1949, Oregon in 1951, on the grounds that it was dangerous to handle a liquid so flammable. Now it is 2012, and the laws are still standing their ground even though many other states have created self-service stations. Why?

The debate, of course, is monetary. With full-service, gas stays about five or six cents a gallon cheaper. With gas prices going up, this could make a difference to some drivers. New Jersey has some of the cheapest gas available in the United States, but Oregon gas prices compare to Washington and California.

Gas stations also receive lower insurance premiums when they employ people to serve gas, because workers are trained with safety information and hazards are minimized. Yet, this deduction in insurance is balanced by employee wages. According to Future of the Whirled, 11 to 12 billion cars are fueled without incident. The few accidents that do happen occur because of too much static electricity, not slips or spills.

New Jersey and Oregon have the same basic argument. Officials say that the full-service gas industry creates jobs, about 7,600 workers in each state. They also claim that this service is preferable to the customers. Residents prefer not to get gas on their hands or clothes or deal with the smell, and during bad weather, there is no need to get out of the car.

Chris Christie, current Governor of New Jersey, proposed switching to self-service stations during his campaign in 2009, but the idea was dropped when drivers opposed. KVTB News, for Idaho News and Weather, cites a list of other reasons Oregon officials want to keep the law intact. These include how impossible it is to enforce safety standards on the driving public, Oregon’s rainy climate leading to more slick spots, and gas drive-off thefts being cut down.

The elderly and the disabled prefer to not pump their own gas. In these two states, they have no problem.  In other states, their needs are not being met. The Americans with Disabilities Act: Assistance at Self-Serve Gas Stations requires equal access at self-service stations. This means that employees need to help those who cannot pump the gas themselves, for whatever reason, without charging anything extra. However, the law is difficult to enforce and many struggle with gas station attendants.

Opponents of Oregon or New Jersey’s law claim that self-service saves time, and gas will be the same price no matter what. Regardless, the laws are not going to be changing anytime soon.

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The U.S. natural gas market is going to have to change dramatically for pipeline developers to salvage their plan to ship gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 states, a key federal official said today at the Platts Energy Podium.

“It is going to take a big turnaround in the market, no doubt about it,” Larry Persily, federal coordinator of Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects, said at the newsmaker event in Washington, D.C. TransCanada and ExxonMobil have been working with state and federal officials on plans to build a $40 billion, 48-inch-diameter pipeline from the North Slope to the Canadian border, where Canadian pipelines would carry gas to the Lower-48.

However, shale gas development has dampened U.S. demand for the gas, and North Slope producers BP, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil met with the Alaska Governor, Sean Parnell, last week to discuss alternatives to the project, including a pipeline to a new liquefied natural gas export project.

After the meeting, BP CEO, Bob Dudley, and ConocoPhillips CEO, Jim Mulva, said the LNG project seemed to be a better way to get the gas to market, casting growing doubts on the viability of the pipeline. On Tuesday, Persily acknowledged that the pipeline’s future hinges on the producers. “It is going to take concurrence of the three producers.

They are the ones that control the vast majority of the leased acreage, the production coming out of there. They are the ones that are going to have to sign 20-year firm shipping commitments on the pipeline worth more than $100 billion.” Persily said he thought the project had a 50-50 chance of being constructed by 2020. “I haven’t given up on the project. … What it would take is the companies believing the market is there at a sufficient price.”

He also noted that there are key benefits to building the pipeline instead of the LNG project. The Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act provides federal loan guarantees for the pipeline, and $21 billion worth of guarantees are currently authorized, he said. The law also allows for accelerated depreciation for the pipeline and an enhanced oil recovery investment tax credit for the gas treatment plant, which together are worth more than $1 billion in tax savings, he added.

“All that applies if you build a pipeline to move gas to the Lower 48. If it is an exclusively export-only line, unless federal law is changed, you don’t get those benefits,” Persily said. Meanwhile, the United States Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes, also speaking at the Podium event, said the U.S. is working to give Shell an answer on the company’s plans to drill several exploratory wells this summer in Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

Hayes, who was appointed by President Obama to chair an interagency task force on Alaska energy development, said meetings at both a secretarial and staff level are being held regularly on Shell’s plans. ”We are committed to give them a timely up or down,” Hayes said.

The Interior Department has already given conditional approval to Shell’s exploration plans for the Beaufort and Chukchi. But the company has yet to submit applications for individual permits to drill specific wells, Hayes said. Hayes also said Interior will not budge on a condition that Shell end its drilling program about 38 days short of the time the company had requested. Hayes said the time was needed for the drilling of a relief well in the event of a blowout.

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At the click of a single button, Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, opened the first Nord stream gas pipeline this week. The pipeline is located at the portovaya compressor station, along at the Russian-Finnish border.

The 1220 km Nord Stream Pipeline was constructed in order to deliver gas directly from Russia’s Vyborg to Germany’s Greifswald across the Baltic Sea. Thus far, the Nord Stream is a twin pipeline, which cost $12.5 bn to build. On completion of the second pipeline by 2013, the system will be able to move 55 bn cu m of gas per year, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

According to Putin, for the next 50 years, the Nord Stream will supply an annual of 55 billion cubic meters of gas not only to Germany but also to the United Kingdom, Denmark and Netherlands.

Many see the benefits of this new tactic. “Nord Stream is important as it will reduce supply uncertainty and price volatility in the winter,” John Fahy, managing director of London-based consultants Eras Ltd., said in an e-mail, according to Businessweek.

Prior to the Nord Stream, Russia relied on land based transit and transportation of gas via Ukraine. The Ukraine and Russia often disagreed. A major conflict in 2006 between Russia and the Ukraine occurred when Ukraine failed to agree with Russia on a price issue.

According to Russian authorities, Ukraine often refused to pay the prices that Russia asks for; this battle has been an on-going issue from the time of movement the Soviet Union collapsed. Russia also accuses Ukraine of siphoning gas to cover its own shortages. In 2009 the battle over gas prices between Russia and Ukraine reached an extraordinary scale.

These conflicts resulted in Russian stopping the supply of gas in winter to Europe, during the coldest temperatures. This left many European customers shivering without heat. According to Reuters, the pipeline will lesson Russia’s reliance on Ukraine who currently transports close to 80 percent of its exports to Europe.

With a lucrative market for its natural resources, many forecast that Moscow will profit off this new system. Meanwhile, the Ukraine is showing concern over the situation, feeling as though Russia is backing out on their working relationship. “You cannot just unilaterally break a contract,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Sechin, told reporters at the Nord Stream launch.

Sechin is a close ally of Putin, Reuters said. At the launch, Putin commented on the circumstances. “As with any other transit country, there is always a temptation to exploit its unique transit status” and that, he said, is ending. Businessweek reported that the Nord Stream pipeline will carry enough gas to supply 26 million European home.

Completion of the first phase of Nord Stream has increased doubts of Ukraine’s future gas purchases from Russia and the process of negotiation is also under doubts. Construction of Nord stream is not the only blow to transit nations since Russia also unveiled plans for construction of a South Stream which will run from Southern Russia to Bulgaria under the Black Sea.

Some say supply disruptions will be the thing of past upon the completion of second and third phases of the project.

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