A Green Energy Investing Guideline

by Louise Harris, Investment U Research

Typically, when investors think about making money from climate change, they think about buying shares of companies that specialize in biofuels or alternative or green energy.

But those aren’t the only ways to profit from the green movement.

Deutsche Bank Group (NYSE: DB) recently conducted in-depth research, analyzing climate change and the cost of combating it. And a few very interesting conclusions came from it…

More capital is required to mobilize climate change industries and more action by government is required to attract capital. When governments offer tax incentives and create integrated plans to combat climate change, investors are attracted. Carbon markets could offer long-term solutions to investors trying to find a niche in the climate change debate.

And there are countries out there doing just that.

The Greenest Countries

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The following letter from the law professor Emmanuel Gaillard, representing the former shareholders of Yukos, was published in the Financial Times.

From Prof Emmanuel Gaillard.

Sir, Almost unnoticed, Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, announced in July that Russia will withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty. This is a significant setback for its European partners. Since its adoption in 1994, the ECT has established a unique balance and a level playing field in the energy sector for all 50 partners, including Russia.

This is a signal to the international community that Russia refuses to live by its international commitments and is not interested in protecting future energy investments.

It is no coincidence that this comes at a time when the former majority shareholders of Yukos oil company are awaiting an international tribunal decision regarding, precisely, whether and to what extent Russia is bound

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Of all the people you might expect to spearhead a movement away from oil and onto alternative energy, T. Boone Pickens probably wouldn’t be at the top of the list.

But a year ago, the 81-year old chairman of BP Capital spent his own money to buy prime time on major networks and mobilized an “army” of believers in order to get the word out about the dangers of continued dependence on foreign oil.

Earlier this month, Pickens appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss the progress of the “Pickens Plan,”which essentially seeks to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil through a combination of wind-generated power and natural gas powered vehicles. The goal: Drastically reducing or eliminating the need for foreign oil in as little as 10 years.

His timing was perfect, as oil prices shot to all-time highs around $150 a year ago. The plan garnered a lot of attention. And to

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Earlier this week, T. Boone Pickens, the 81-year-old Chairman of BP Capital, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the progress of the “Picken’s Plan.”

Readers might remember it was during the heat of the Presidential campaign last summer, on July 8, that Pickens began his own campaign to wean the nation off of foreign oil.

Spending his own money, he bought time on the major networks and mobilized an “army” of believers in order to get the word out about the dangers of continued dependence on foreign oil.

Essentially, the Pickens Plan seeks to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil with a combination of wind-generated power and natural gas powered vehicles. In the process, the need for foreign oil is drastically reduced or eliminated in as little as 10 years.

His timing - with oil prices hovering around $150 a barrel - got him a lot of attention.

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Avalon Oil & Gas Inc. is a domestic oil and natural gas producer with leases currently in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. The company’s strategy is to use efficient reservoir maintenance and innovative oil recovery technologies on previously abandoned wells in order to produce much-needed hydrocarbon energy.

Avalon believes that global conditions in the energy market present the company with an attractive investment opportunity for proven technologies which will expand oil production efficiency in already-established oil fields. There is definitely oil to be recovered – according to the Department of Energy there is the potential to recover over 43 billion barrels of additional oil from stranded oil reserves and mature oil wells in the United States.

Finding additional oil will be important in the upcoming years. Why? The same old story – supply and demand. The supply of oil is steadily declining while

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When oil prices moved to over $30 a barrel in the mid 1980s, it was considered a significant event. It also signaled the birth of small ethanol companies in the Midwest. Many of them managed to hang around long enough to get a second wind when Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the ensuing Gulf War pushed oil prices past $40.

But the renewed interest in ethanol proved to be short-lived, as oil retreated below $20 a barrel just four months later. As a result, many of those smaller ethanol companies couldn’t survive as profitable alternative energy investments.

Flash forward to today, where we’ve seen crude oil prices double in just the past four months. Worldwide oil demand has soared, particularly from fast-growing countries like China and India, and although the global downturn has seen the pace of demand slow, when the global economy gets back on track, it should prove even more bullish

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Alternative Energy Investments: Three Scenarios For Clean Energy

by Jim Stanton, Contributing Editor, Sector Watch

When oil prices moved to over $30 a barrel in the mid 1980s, it was considered a significant event.

It also signaled the birth of small ethanol companies in the Midwest. Many of them managed to hang around long enough to get a second wind when Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the ensuing Gulf War pushed oil prices past $40.

But the renewed interest in ethanol proved to be short-lived, as oil retreated below $20 a barrel just four months later. As a result, many of those smaller ethanol companies couldn’t survive as profitable alternative energy investments.

Flash forward to today, where we’ve seen crude oil prices double in just the past four months. Worldwide oil demand has soared, particularly from fast-growing countries like China and India, and although the global downturn has seen the pace of

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The New York Times has an article today reporting that domestic Natural Gas reserves are 35% higher than previously estimated due to improved ability to tap deep shale deposits. (Zacks Equity Research senior analyst Sheraz Mian has also posted a blog on this earlier.) This helps explain why natural gas prices are so low relative to oil prices. In terms of energy content, there is a 6:1 ratio between an MCF [thousand cubic feet] of gas and a barrel of oil. At the current futures price of $4.12 an MCF, natural gas is going for the equivalent of only $24.72 a barrel, a massive discount to the current $71.06 price of oil. This will make a very significant difference to your energy investments. At least for the near term, look for E&P companies that are "oily," like Denbury Resources (DNR) rather than "gassy" like ...

The stimulus package is likely to help companies like Emerson Electric (EMR), General Electric (GE), Jacobs Engineering (JEC), Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) and Caterpillar (CAT).We now have a rough outline of what the economic stimulus package will look at. The total size is set at $825 billion. Here are the key components, along with my thoughts on each (or at least most) of them:Tax Cuts - $275 Billion:Cutting payroll taxes by $500 per individual and $1,000 per family. Not the best bang for the buck, since much of it may be used to pay down debt or otherwise be saved. However it seems like a good idea in any case.Restoring the balance sheet of the household sector, particularly of the lower and middle parts of the income spectrum would be a very good thing for ...

January 14, 2009 ndash; Yesterday Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold introduced S. 222 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase the national limitation on qualified energy conservation bonds and to clarify that certain programs constitute a qualified conservation purpose, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance. We expect to see further legislation supporting energy efficiency and alternative energy development. Here is the text from Feingoldrsquo;s comments on the floor:nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, over the past few days I have introduced a series of bills that are part of my E4 Initiative, dubbed E4 because of its focus on economy, employment, education, and energy. Today I am introducing two bills that are part of this effort: the Community Revitalization Energy Conservation, CREC, Act of 2009 and the Energy and Technology Advancement, ETA, Act of 2009.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The newest among my E4 bills is the Community Revitalization Energy Conservation, CREC, ...