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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A new law requiring oil companies to disclose all payments made to governments has sparked a sharp debate, with Big Oil saying it will put it at a big competitive disadvantage.

The law, attached at the last minute to the financial reform bill last month, applies to extractive industries – basically all U.S.-listed oil, gas and mining companies.

These companies pay hundreds of billions of dollars each year to governments in the form of royalties, taxes, and other fees. The problem, say some, is that these payments are often not transparent. Now firms must disclose these payments.

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Americans can expect gasoline prices to drop as school buses start rolling through neighborhoods across the country.

With most family vacations wrapping up and teen drivers back in classes, gasoline demand will wane and prices should fall after Labor Day. One expert says prices could drop as much as 15 cents a gallon.

The average retail price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline was $2.724 a gallon Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. It has dropped about 4.6 cents in the past week but is still 10 cents more than it was a year ago.

Full Story at msnbc.com

WASHINGTON — Retail sales grew in July for the first time in three months but largely due to a rise in gasoline prices, the government said Friday in a series of reports that added up to a picture of sluggish economic growth.

Sales rose 0.4 percent last month and sales excluding autos climbed 0.2 percent, the Commerce Department said. Retail strength was concentrated in higher sales of autos and gasoline. Most other retail categories saw their sales fall.

Meanwhile consumer prices rose in July by 0.3 percent – the biggest jump in nearly a year — as energy costs increased for the first time in five months, the Labor Department said. On an annual basis consumer prices are up a mild 1.2 percent, a bit higher than the 1.1 percent pace last month.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — In an effort to help struggling gas stations and appease furious consumers following the Gulf disaster, BP is lowering its gasoline prices.

BP is offering a series of incentives to its distributors that could shave two cents off the price of gasoline at the pump.

Contrary to popular belief, BP does not set prices at the gas station.

Most BP stations are independent businesses, they’re not owned by the company. Much like a convenience store selling Coke, the gas stations buy their gas from distributors, which are also independent businesses.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors announced Friday that the automaker has raised its planned production of the Chevrolet Volt electric car to 45,000 in 2012.

Originally the automaker planned to produce 30,000 Volts in its second year of production.

The announcement coincided with a visit by President Barack Obama to the Detroit auto plant where early production of the car has already begun.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Exxon Mobil Corp. reported quarterly earnings Thursday that easily beat analysts’ expectations on higher crude prices.

The world’s largest public energy company reported net income of $7.56 billion, or $1.60 a share, in the second quarter, up 91% from $3.95 billion, or 81 cents a share, in the same period in 2009.

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Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.46 a share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

Earnings for the first half of 2010, excluding special items, were $13.9 billion, up 60% over the first half of 2009.

Full Story at msnbc.com

WASHINGTON — A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.

In the survey, commissioned by the rig’s owner, Transocean, workers said that company plans were not carried out properly and that they “often saw unsafe behaviors on the rig.”

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LONDON — BP is in talks to sell up to $12 billion of assets, including its big stake in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in North America, The Sunday Times of London reported.

A sale would be the latest of several steps the beleaguered oil giant is taking to raise money to pay for damages from the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Times said.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — There are as many as 10,000 people that work on deepwater oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. These are jobs that could soon begin to disappear because of the temporary ban on such drilling.

But not only those jobs are at stake. From helicopter pilots to offshore catering chefs, another 25,000 jobs could be affected by the six-month ban imposed by President Obama while the investigation into the BP accident is underway, according to David Dismukes, a professor at Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies.

Full Story at money.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — BP received a third bill from the government on Monday, to the tune of $51.4 million, for cleanup costs related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Obama administration said BP “and other responsible parties” have paid the first two bills in full, for a total of $70.89 million. Monday’s bill makes a total of $122.29 million billed to date.

Full Story at msnbc.com

Michigan’s depressed economy nearly toppled Grand Rapids-based awning maker Prestige Products. Then in April, the company’s fortunes changed dramatically when executive Brian Rickel got a phone call from an old contact at BP. It was 10 days after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig had exploded, and BP needed help containing the gush of oil. Six weeks later, Prestige has rented a factory, filled it with millions of dollars of new equipment, and hired 74 workers (it employed only six as of April). Using material similar to the vinyl in awnings, Prestige is churning out 12,000 feet a day of booms, the floating barriers that help contain oil slicks. Prestige hopes to double its output — if it can hire 50 additional workers.

Full Story at msnbc.com

New Orleans restaurant owner Ralph Brennan had only recently started to see business pick up following Hurricane Katrina and the recession when he was hit with another blow: the Gulf oil disaster.

Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and began spewing oil off the coast of Louisiana, Brennan says the price he pays for shrimp has gone up around 25 percent, and oyster prices have almost doubled.