Shortly after I moved to West Texas 22 years ago to attend college, the price of a barrel of oil dropped below $10 a barrel devastating the economy of America’s “oil patch.” At $9 and change for a barrel, it just wasn’t attractive to invest in the oil business again. Wells were capped, drilling rigs and drilling equipment idled. Fast foward 22 years and oil is poised to hit $100 a barrel - a price that is fueling investment in, and the stocks of, alternative-energy companies.
Wired reports:
With the price of crude oil all but assured of topping $100 a barrel after a quick succession of all-time highs, the future of alternative energy has never looked better. As Wired reported in “Why $5 Gas is Good For America,” the higher crude prices climb, the more attractive — and viable — emerging technologies like biofuel, hydrogen and plug-in hybrids become. It also bodes well for other forms of fossil fuels, such as methane hydrates and oil shale, once thought too expensive to develop.
Wired includes biofuels on the list of alternative energies benefiting from the high price of oil, but CNBC’s website “Green: The Color of Money” says biofuels are losing their luster with some mutual funds.
As ethanol production costs surge, green mutual funds are shifting their focus to solar and wind energy.
“There’s no consensus that biofuels actually produce substantially more energy than they take to make,” says Morningstar mutual fund analyst Michael Herbst, adding that wind and solar “actually reached profitability,” and “top the list of interest for active mutual fund managers.”
Unlike corn-based ethanol, wind and solar release minimal carbon, making them not only more economical, but more green.
Could it be that ethanol is merely a transitional stage between oil and other alternative energies?
2 Comments
Anything that has big government and big business in any way as part of the equation does not in anyway have the good of the human race as part of the long term equation.
Power and money corrupt. That has been proven over and over again
Whenever you have big business holding hands with the federal government in the US people are holding out their hands and are ready willing and able to lie cheat and steal at any and all levels.
The climate is changing but the moron who is the vice president of the United States says it is not so.
The Decider who has locked this country into a long term war in the middle east simply as a means of controlling hydrocarbon fossil fuels has proven himself as a liar over and over again.
The people in the middle east have had their natural resources raided by people in the West for over 100 years. If I lived in Iran or Iraq I would hate the US myself.
The West feels that democracy is a great thing. Democracy is fast disappearing in the US.
You have two individuals who have decided they can throw out the US constitution in the name of global terror.
Stay home leave people alone and terror is not a problem,. Respect the Moslems and their religous beliefs.
No one is forced to live there. If they do not like the beliefs they can move to a place that does not have strict religous laws.
Trust the US or Europe to do anything on their behalf, only a fool would do that. It is about money and resoureces and it has been for over a 100 years.
The issue of creating hydrogen from seawater has been solved. RF waves can be used to breakdown the bonds between potassium chloride, hydrogen, and oxygen with a net energy gain.
Why has it not been taken to a Manhatton Project type level? It is the money as usual a man owns a patent and it is public knowledge.
John Kanzius said it himself, It is the excise tax collections by the US government that determines what will be devoted to bring the tecnology to market.
Exxon Mobil does not own the technology so it would hurt Exxon Mobil if the techology became a reality. There is an endless supply of seawater. It is recycleable. It returns to water vapor when burned in an internal combustion engine. Then falls back to earth in the form of rain
It is money that governs what is done in the name of humanity.
I am not much of a church goer because relgion is big busines in the US. But I do know about Jesus and the money changers in the Jewish temples that was one of the turning points in his life.
It was money and greed 2,000 years ago and the greed factor is still a major problem related to human suffering today.
Trust us. That is an utter and total bad joke and the great lie today as it was 2,000 years ago. People simply cannot be trusted with anything that has money attached to it
There are no less than 100 pages on the Internet on what John Kanzius discovered.
It is time to change how things work and time that everyone learns that if Wall Street is attached to something, it cannot be trusted. If you live in The US you cannot trust the government at any level.
It is about corruption and money. Get as much as you can by any means.
My opinions are based on 60 years of observation, not on some misguided thinking.
Ralph O. Dreifus
BS Acc MBA CPA
Jeez Ralph, which part of your thinking, exactly,is it thats not misguided? Oh OK, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, not misguided simply ignorant. Get back on your meds buddy.