The Next Hot Sector

I predict that the next market bubble will be ..............


ALTERNATIVE ENERGY !!!


Petro-independence will become such a big political issue here that the politicians will devote all their hot air to inflating a bubble of epic proportions.


One positive side effect is that will probably see Marajuana legalized to allow bio-mass to fuel conversion which will probably generate it's own little boomlet too.

I can see electricty transmission capacity doing well, or possibly storage.


But there is more oil down there than it would take to drown Jesus, and more nuclear power than it would take to fry his pop up above.


Seems to me the best way to store electricity is to convert it to mass, and closet it away in the intranuclear topology of very-heavy elements.


eLROY

Its insanely expensive and I don't think there are many safe ways to do it. Electricity is so ridiculously cheap and reliable now, I never understood this big movement to deregulation. The savings that competition was supposed to bring in CA for consumers was a joke, most economists figured a $35 bill would become a $25-30 bill. So for maybe $10/month now look at how on the hook most consumers in the state are! Electricity as it is just faces the challenges of environmentalists, but for the most part their complaints just come off like a crying child. Renewable resources cause all kinds of problems they never acknowledge. Some Europeans have taken to offshore windmills, great idea in theory but its seriously wrecked their extremely important fishing industries. Windfarms are nice, but there is no way they could EVER be a major source of electrical supply for a country due to lack of enough wind and their intermittent quality (ie days the wind isn't blowing no power is created). Solar energy is way too inefficient, at least for now. Problem is no one has created a way to take the sun's power and turn that directly into energy. All they have done is transferred its heat into power, a terribly inefficient process. Hydropower is much like windpower and its losing its status due to its effect on fish. So where are the great ideas at? Not one of these could ever do more than supplement our power supply. We still need gas and coal. Enviromentalists are so against these ideas its a shame. The more they oppose them, the more they take the incentive away from doing research on them that can reduce their impact on the environment. A modern coal-burning facility can produce energy with about 80% less pollution than an older facility. Problem is they won't allow many of these. If you let them in, they could crowd out and obsolete old coal energy sources and greatly improve the environment. Why don't the tree huggers ever understand this principle??? I think in all these are lousy invesments. We should make modest investments in researching these, but still never look past the fact that none are practical as major sources of energy in the near future.

Ever notice they 'want' everything, such as SUV's, TV's, computers, big houses, schools ect, ect. but donot want to provide for the use of them? They have a one word slogon: "DON"T"


It's much easier to be an environmentalist when the lights are on.

Just like taxes Steve. I used to live in CA, actually was there most of my life. That is the most messed up joke of a state you have ever seen. Tons of white supremacist types that spout off about immigrants, yet eat Chinese on Monday, Mexican on Tuesday, Thai on Wednesday, Taco Bell on Thursday...you get the point. Tons of environmentalists just like you say, want a mini-van for their kids, have three computers in their house, work about 50 miles from home polluting and causing traffic...yet they talk about how we need to save the earth. Latest funny is the whole energy thing that I have talked about at length. "We need more renewable resources" they cry. Where you gonna put them? The windfarms can't be built because your suburbs are everywhere taking up the good potential spots outside LA and SF, solar won't work well because the three major cities have low clouds half the day, electric cars won't work because they commute so damn far in so much traffic. Just shows what happens to people when they make too much money and don't really know what to do with it. They get the "half-way" guilty feeling. They don't really feel guilty, they just pretend that if they act concerned and claim to be for causes that they never really would sacrifice for they will get salvation somehow. Now they are going to re-elect Gray Davis because he is straight out of the Bill Clinton school of never really being for anything other than appearing to be "compassionate" and following those polls whichever way they blow.

All good points. Last numbers I saw on wind power showed a contribution of less that 1/2 of 1%. Coal is most likely the best short term answer. (that ought to upset a whole bunch of folks).


As for CA you really think that Gov. Davis will be re-elected? If true, just shows how much more I have to learn about the left coast.


Coffee got to 5780, pulled back to 5550 area today. Still feel it should come down to the 5050 area. But what do I know. I only drink it.

Unfortunately he will because like a bunch of numbnuts, Republicans assured him a win. As much as its good to stick to your guns and your morals, Simon is about as unelectable a candidate as you can find. These Republican idiots haven't figured out how to organize and get a win there like they did with "W". You have to pick a guy that has a good reputation, has a built in base of important voters, can draw some voters from the other party or at least a lot of independent types, and most of all don't be someone that sounds like a Baptist priest. On all those counts Simon fails and fails miserably. You don't necessarily have to be pro-choice, but you can't come off sounding like the Pope on the issue. You can be pro-business, but you can't sound like Milton Friedman either. Simon has no base, I mean his voting base is near nothing unless you count far-flung suburban white men. Riordan was a mayor of a heavily Democrat city, he got support from a modest number of minorities, just like Bush was able to do from some latinos. Riordan is pro-choice which is a huge key when you have such a huge urban population. Davis is so beatable, but he suffered because those registered Republicans would rather lose the election to a guy they hate with someone they love instead of winning that same election with someone they can tolerate. I can't imagine how much longer the Republicans will insist on being Christian conservatives before they finally give it up and take a more pragmatic approach. In most of the world to win an election you have to compromise and accept less than hard core policies and platforms, but this party refuses to do it even in a state where its clear that its a necessity.

I'll let my pal do the talking:


http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell030402.asp


eLROY

Hmmmm, maybe, just maybe Simon can pull it off.


Wouldn't that be a wake up call.