PEAK OIL FOR DUMMIES

Greg’s Note: A few weeks ago, our intrepid correspondent Byron King received a request from the editor of a newspaper in a major American city to write a summary of the concept of Peak Oil. Byron wrote the following article and submitted it. But then the newspaper editorial board decided not to run the article. So we will run it here. For those of you who have followed Byron’s writings on Peak Oil, much of this will be familiar. But if you are still trying to wrap your brain around the concept, this is as good a summary as you will see anywhere else. Probably better, in our opinion. The newspaper’s loss is our gain. Any comments? Send them to your oily managing editor here: greg@whiskeyandgunpowder.com


Whiskey & Gunpowder
May 15, 2006
by Byron W. King
Pittsburgh, U.S.A.

Rocks, Rock Oil and Peak Oil

ALMOST 20,000 YEARS AGO, a Stone Age tribe made camp under a sandstone overhang in a place south of Pittsburgh now called Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, in Washington County. Theirs was a world still in glacial throes, with the edge of a mile-thick sheet of ice not far to the north. On the edge of a frozen ice desert that covered half the continent, these ancients sought protection from the bitter elements. Today, visitors to Meadowcroft can enter an open excavation and view evidence of tools and campfires made by these wandering souls so long ago.

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From 2001 to the end of 2005, my group of subscribers made enough winning plays to potentially turn an initial $5000 investment into exactly $1,051,118. With "name brand" stocks. But without buy and hold. And without waiting for the stock market to "wake up."

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Not quite a century and a half ago, in 1859, a man of the Iron Age named Edwin Drake made his own mark upon human history by driving down one of the world’s first commercial oil wells on the banks of Oil Creek, in Venango County south of Titusville. Although the Drake Oil Well produced only 25 barrels of “rock oil” on its first day of production, and that from the grand depth of 69 feet, it ushered in the Age of Petroleum. Out of Drake’s well arose most of what makes up our life as we know it now.

Of course, without oil in this world something else would be here in its place. Ours might not resemble the Pleistocene existence of Meadowcroft, but neither would it be anything remotely like what we know today. Absent abundant quantities of oil cycling through the arteries of world commerce, our motorized, mechanized, industrialized world would not be here, and neither would we, I venture to guess.

The oil wells of the world produce something over 84 million barrels of petroleum every day, or about 1,000 barrels per second, and every drop is consumed in an energy-hungry world. People move about using oil, by means of train, plane, or automobile. People wear oil, in the form of synthetic fibers. People eat oil, in the form of tractor fuel, fertilizer, transport, processing, refrigeration or preservation, and cooking.

Modern medicine is premised on the use of large amounts of petroleum-based feedstock, and other forms of disposable plastic. Much, if not most, of modern commerce is based on the extensive use of oil-based plastic and chemicals, and oil-fueled transport of goods over vast distances. And since the time of Edwin Drake, oil has been relatively cheap, which is pretty much why things evolved as they did.

This is also why it is crucial that you understand the concept of “Peak Oil,” which is a shorthand way of expressing the geological concept that mankind has reached a "peak" in its ability to produce this depleting resource from the crust of the Earth. The world’s total level of production of about 84 million barrels of conventional oil per day will not last much longer. It is on the cusp of decline.

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Peak Oil is not some sort of Internet conspiracy theory. Peak Oil is as much a geological fact as is anything that occurs on a geological scale. Oil production has peaked in almost every major oil-producing nation or region on the planet, starting with the United States in 1970. U.S. oil production peaked in that year along the lines predicted in 1949 by a brilliant and eccentric geologist named M. King Hubbert.

Hubbert noted the rather obvious point that you cannot produce what you have not discovered. So Hubbert graphed U.S. oil discoveries from the 1860s onward and predicted a peak for U.S. production in 1970, a peak that occurred on schedule, although it was only apparent in hindsight.

Even the massive oil discovery at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in 1968 barely changed the shape of the decline in the production curve that Hubbert’s theory set forth. Since 1970, U.S. oil imports have done nothing but increase, year over year, from places with surplus oil production. This is all about to change.

Ominously, during the past four decades, oil discoveries worldwide have slowed to a snail’s pace while demand for and production from earlier discoveries have soared. Similar to what occurred in America in 1970, oil production in other regions of the world has also encountered peaks.

Oil production in places as diverse as Indonesia and Mexico, Iran and the North Sea has topped out, rolled over, and is now in a state of irreversible decline. That is, oil producers in these regions have begun to encounter dramatic decreases in the volumes of oil they can find and lift from the ground, let alone sell into the world’s markets.

The list of nations in the Peak Oil Club might surprise you. Kuwait announced a peak in daily oil production in November 2005. There are good estimates that Russian oil production is peaking and will commence a decline, if not a collapse, within 3-5 years. Even Saudi Arabia is struggling to maintain its current rates of oil production.

Add to the geological nature of the decline in oil production the fact that there is a worldwide shortage of onshore and offshore drilling rigs and necessary production equipment such as tubular goods, drill bits, pumps, and valves.

And there is a severe shortage of skilled manpower in the petroleum industry, the result of the worldwide contraction of the production industry during the “cheap oil” days of the 1980s and 1990s. The bottom line is that world oil production is maxed out and will commence an irreversible long-term decline over the next few years.

With major regions of the oil-producing world entering or already in a state of irreversible decline, there is no "swing" capacity to accommodate increased oil demand. But demand for crude oil and refined product still follows its historic and increasing trend lines, particularly with the rapid economic growth in Asia in China and India. Thus, it is left to a rising price to, as the saying goes, “clear the market” for oil.

As U.S. motorists confront the long-term reality of paying $3 and more for a gallon of gasoline (and I believe that it will be much more, barring some worldwide economic collapse), they are directly experiencing an unpleasant economic and energy future in the form of Peak Oil. Hubbert predicted it many years ago, and that future is now.

The world will produce less and less conventional oil over time, and the nicest way to put it is that people will have to figure out some other way to do things besides burning oil the old-fashioned way.

Peak Oil will force people to view the world differently, to a degree almost unimaginable to those who scarcely understand the concept just now.

Mankind will reduce oil consumption because the oil will simply not be there. Being “green” and “environmentally friendly” will have next to nothing to do with it. Being “rich” might not help much either, although it probably will not hurt.

We live with the ghost of Edwin Drake, who died in 1880. Drake’s remains are interred in Titusville beneath an imposing granite memorial, and under the shadow of a handsome bronze sculpture of a muscular man pounding and dressing a drill bit with a massive hammer. It is all very neoclassical, noble, and impressive. Drake's monument reads in part:

“Col. Edwin L. Drake...Founder of the Petroleum Industry, the Friend of Man.

“Called by Circumstances to the Solution of a Great Mining Problem...He laid the Foundations of an Industry that has Enriched the State, Benefited Mankind, Stimulated the Mechanical Arts...and has Attained Worldwide Proportions.

“His highest Ambition was the Successful Accomplishment of his Task. His Noble Victory the Conquest of the Rock, Bequeathing to Posterity the Fruits of his Labor and of his Industry.”

“The Conquest of the Rock,” it claims on the tomb, with hubris similar to that of fabled Ozymandias. How fitting that Drake’s grave at Titusville is not far from the Stone Age ruins of Meadowcroft, only about 125 miles or so as the crow flies across southwest Pennsylvania.

In one ancient hollow, beneath a ledge of sandstone, people eked out their existence, burnt their charcoal, and lived whatever life they could make for themselves in the shadow of an ice sheet. In another, more modern locale, Drake conquered the rock -- for a while, perhaps -- and brought unimaginable change to the trajectory of mankind’s existence.

But in both places, Meadowcroft and Titusville, the lesson appears to be that mankind never truly conquers the rock.

Peak Oil is nature’s way of rebalancing the equation. And Peak Oil is today as much a challenge to the modern world as the Pleistocene ice sheets were to the people of Meadowcroft. Peak Oil will control your destiny. You should start learning about it, thinking about it, and planning for it.



Until we meet again…

Byron W. King

Greg’s Endnote: There’s another massive problem with the world’s oil supply -- as if the peaking of production weren’t bad enough, right? But this problem’s on the other end of the spectrum. It’s rooted in humankind - not the unassailable laws of geology. What happens when a country lies about their oil reserves? What happens when it is suddenly revealed that there’s only HALF of the oil in a certain country than we were previously told? Bad things happen, that’s what…and you’d feel pretty astounded to see how some of our key oil-producing “allies” deceive us about how much oil their lands hold…our “allies” even lied to George W. Bush! Please look here for more on the Great Oil Hoax...

Discover the biggest lie of the last 30 years. . .

. . .revealed by the investment newsletter rated #1 for the last five years by the independent Hulbert Financial Digest.

Dear Reader,

Those Saudi Arabians, you've gotta love 'em. First, fifteen out of nineteen hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis, but Saudi Arabia had NOTHING to do with it, or so we're told. They love us!

Now Saudi Arabia is about to drop another bombshell on us, and this one will make 9/11 look like small potatoes.

I never thought I'd say anything could make 9/11 look like small potatoes. But this does, at least when it comes to the economy.

9/11 shut the markets down for a few days. When the next crisis hits, you'll wish the markets would shut down so you didn't have to watch the carnage.

What Bush learned behind closed doors

If some well-informed experts are right, Saudi Arabia's oil reserves are a fraction of what they've been telling us.

Why does it matter? Because everyone has believed for decades that Saudi Arabia's oil supply is virtually unlimited. That's what the Saudis have said over and over again for more than 30 years.

If an oil shortage threatens to cause a recession or a market crash, we can count on the Saudis to come through. So people think.

But in a private briefing, one of America's top oil experts told President George Bush exactly what I'm telling you. In fact, this same man was a consultant to the secretive task force that drew up Vice President Cheney's energy plan in 2001.

In other words, the guy is a heavy hitter who knows the energy business.

He warned Bush that the Saudis don't have anything near the oil reserves they claim. They already pump less oil than most "experts" think, and here's the real kicker. . .

Saudi oil production is about to drop sharply.
And it will keep going down for good.

Other experts have analyzed the numbers and came to the same conclusions. If the charges are true - and I believe they are - we could be facing. . .

Oil at $150 per barrel and gasoline at $8 a gallon

The oil is running out. It's as simple as that.

But that's not what you hear from so-called experts. If you ask government officials, our intelligence agencies, and even powerful Wall Street financiers, they tell you the opposite.

They say the Saudis could quickly double their oil production from the current level if they wanted to. And given a few years, they think the Saudis could produce four times as much oil as they now do.

This is like the Iraqi WMDs all over again

The intelligence agencies and the conventional "experts" are dead wrong. The oil isn't there.

Why should you pay attention to what I think? Let me give you a good reason, and then you decide. My name is Justice Litle, and I'm the editor of Outstanding Investments, a monthly newsletter plus weekly email updates.

My publication had the best track record of any investment newsletter in the country during the last five years. You can check it out at CBS Newswatch and its independent rating service, the Hulbert Financial Digest.

Readers who followed Outstanding Investments were up 64.2 percent in 2005 and 62 percent the year before that. What's more, we did it all with stocks, not options, and I recommended very few trades. So it's worth your time to spend a few minutes and let me tell you. . .

Why 2006 will be a year of crisis

The oil and gas shortages we've seen lately are nothing compared to what's on the way.

When the truth comes out, it will send shock waves through the world economy. Everyone will find out too late - when gasoline soars to five or six dollars per gallon. I'm writing this to give you a heads-up.

The next few pages show you how to protect yourself and get rich off energy sources and technologies the world will scramble to buy at any price.

Don't be surprised if certain commodities and resource stocks soar three, five or even ten times over.

Here are a few things you'll discover in the next few minutes. . .

The most important fact - not an opinion, but a fact - that should guide your whole investment strategy.

A "minor" sector of the energy market is set to grow 17 times over. I give you the best ways to play it.

A "little" oil company owns reserves the size of Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. It's not even on your radar screen, yet the stock is already up a thousand percent, and readers who listened to me captured about half that gain - 496 percent. Even bigger gains are on the way.

The coal revolution is here. It's always been cheap and plentiful. Now it's going to be clean, and soon it will even be liquid. It's also going to cause a massive shift in world power. Two American companies will profit big time.

What car will you drive in 2015? Keep reading to discover a "secret play" on the winning car technology of the future. Hint: It may run on coal. MORE: Why the Prius will be a loser. And another surprise: The car-makers are NOT the ones who will reap big profits from the super-car.

Discover the fastest -growing energy source in the world. Also the cleanest and safest. America may miss out, but you can still profit.

A natural gas company offers more income than CDs do. It will probably give you a 100 percent capital gain to boot. But you have to know about a hidden pitfall. Keep reading. . .

Three wild cards could send oil over $100 in one day. One of these events may have happened by the time you read this.

I urge you to keep reading and at least consider the steps I recommend to protect yourself. Because you need to ask. . .

The Number One Financial Newsletter in the United States As Rated by the Hulbert Financial Digest

Justice Litle is a world traveler who studied philosophy at Oxford, at Pulacki University in the Czech Republic, and at Macquarie University in Australia. He planned to settle into a comfy career on a tree-shaded campus.

Then came an experience that changed his life: a book called Investment Biker by legendary money manager Jim Rogers. Justice Litle was so hooked on the excitement and challenge of big league investing, he jumped into a new career and never looked back.

"The markets are like a three-dimensional chess game that was just too intriguing to pass up," he says.

Now he's not only a commodities expert himself, he trains commodities traders and contributes to textbooks on the subject. He also edits a newsletter for average Joes called Outstanding Investments. Its portfolio gained more in the past five years than any other newsletter tracked by the prestigious Hulbert Financial Digest.

Justice has worked with hedge funds and traded equities for a private partnership. Sophisticated investors can tell you all about his articles in Futures Magazine, and you may have seen him quoted in the Wall Street Journal, or benefited from his market wisdom in Reuters and Dow Jones newswires.

Will Americans have to read by candlelight and bike to work?

We will if the country dodges crucial energy choices - and time is running out. It may be too late to avoid a deep recession. It's definitely too late to avoid $100 oil, thanks to. . .

Saudi Secrets and Funny Math
The cupboard is bare and nobody knows it

Americans used to run Aramco, the huge oil company that manages the Saudi fields. But in 1979 the Saudis booted us out and took over.

And then a funny thing happened. . .

The Saudis started keeping everything a secret.

No one knows for sure how much oil they've got in the ground, or how much they produce each year, or how much they could produce if they wanted to push it to the max.

It's all secret. Experts try to figure out how much oil the Saudis sell by monitoring tanker traffic in and out of the world's ports. That's how little we know for sure.

But wait, it gets worse!

After the Saudis took over, an even funnier thing happened. . .

Their figures for proven reserves kept going up and up and up - even though they didn't find any major new oil fields!

In 1979, the Saudis adjusted proven reserves upward by 50 billion barrels. Then eight years after that, their proven reserves magically grew by another 100 billion barrels.

Their estimated reserves increased by 150% in nine years - to a total of 260 billion barrels. And they didn't find a single major new oil field!

And here's the funniest thing of all. . .

For the last 17 years, they've claimed they own 260 billion barrels of proven oil in the ground. The figure never goes down, even though they pumped out 46 billion barrels during that period.

Let me see. . .260 minus 46 equals 260. Saudi math!

Based on these bogus figures, the Saudis claim they can produce as much oil as the world wants for the next fifty years. As recently as 2004 they claimed their reserve estimates are actually conservative.

That's why most of the world's governments and intelligence services believe the Saudis could pump 20 million barrels of oil a day if they wanted to. Trouble is, we've got no proof except their say-so.

If it were true, we wouldn't have a thing to worry about. But it's not.

It's horse hockey

Before Aramco's American owners were shown the door in 1979 they told Congress that Saudi Arabia's had proven reserves of 110 billion barrels. There've been no major new discoveries, so 110 billion barrels was probably about right. And since then, about half of that has been used up.

So why do the Saudis insist everything is just fine and they have 260 billion barrels of reserves?

One reason is they wanted to discourage non-OPEC nations from looking for more oil or switching to alternatives.

It was a devious plan, and it worked perfectly.

But that wasn't the only reason the Saudis lied about their reserves. They did it because everyone does it! Everyone in OPEC, that is.

The Biggest Lie of All: OPEC's Imaginary Oil

In the 1980s, OPEC's claim of total reserves magically leaped from 353 to 643 billion barrels without a single major discovery. Industry experts call it the quota war.

You see, OPEC had to limit how much oil each member could sell, because prices were too low. The quotas were based on. . .each member's oil reserves!

That's right: The amount of oil OPEC would let a member pump depended on how much that member had in the ground. So it paid OPEC members to claim the biggest reserves they could. And that's what they did.

The Saudis alone jacked up their estimate by about 100 billion. Kuwait added 50 percent to its reserves in one year, 1985. Venezuela doubled its reserves in 1987. Iraq and Iran doubled their estimates, too.

What's more, OPEC members did like the Saudis and kept their reserve estimates the same year after year, as if no oil was being pumped out and sold.

Everyone claimed to have a bottomless well.

Now if you're like me you prefer to base your financial decisions on the real world, not on a fantasy.

Let's look at how much oil there really is. . .

In the 1970s, when Western managers were still in charge, they believed for a time that Saudi output could reach 20 million barrels a day. But by the time the Americans lost control in 1979, they figured the peak would be 12 million.

They also predicted that peak production would last only 15 or 20 years.

1979 plus 20 is 1999. We're past the peak, if these men were right. But we already know they were too optimistic.

The truth is that Saudi production never got to 12 million. "In all probability, output peaked in 1981 at an unsustainable level of about 10.5 million barrels per day," according to Matthew R. Simmons, a leading oil industry authority.

And yet the lies go on. . .

In 2004, Saudi officials claimed they boosted production to 9.5 million barrels and maintained that level for five months.

It's almost sure they were lying. The International Energy Agency is the group that keeps an eye on these things for the developed, oil-importing countries. The IEA could find no sign the Saudis were selling more oil.

As far as anyone can tell, they only pump around five million barrels a day and that's all they've pumped for years.

It's déjà vu all over again

In spite of being lied to at least once, the IEA, the U.S. Department of Energy and other forecasters believe the Saudi claims. ALL their projections of our energy future ALWAYS assume the Saudis could produce 15 or 20 million barrels a day.



The lies have worked. Not only do Western politicians believe them but so do many oil industry experts and investors with huge amounts of money at stake. They've been had.

You'll get the full story in a FREE Special Investment Report called Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch. It's just one of four free special reports with my ten best recommendations.

The three specific picks in Crude Awakening are up 496 percent, 140 percent and 430 percent as I write these words. I'm telling readers to hang on to all three of them because the profits have just begun.

We went through three recessions from 1973-1983. Care for a repeat?

Our whole economy is at risk. Your investments are at risk. Your retirement plans are at risk.

America has been so prosperous the last couple of decades, a lot of people forget what the energy crisis of the Seventies was like. Let me remind you: The price of a barrel of oil shot up 400 percent. Long lines formed at gas stations practically overnight.

Folks had to pay four times as much for a gallon of gas, and there came a week when one out of every five gas stations in the United States had no gas to sell at any price.

The U.S. had three major recessions within ten years after the first oil crisis in 1973. And those recessions were deep, with double-digit unemployment, double-digit interest rates and double-digit inflation.

Think 10 to 12 percent unemployment, or worse.

Think 15 to 18 percent mortgage rates.

Got the picture? That was the Seventies. Not fun. My take is that a similar crisis will rock the nation before we solve our problem with clean coal, liquefied natural gas, oil from tar sands, high-mileage cars and safe nuclear plants. More than likely, the politicians will quarrel for years before they do what has to be done.

My picks are already way up even though our energy problems so far are nothing compared to what's on the way. At the risk of looking kind of cynical, the worse the crisis gets, the higher my recommended stocks will climb.



So I urge you to send for the four free Special Investment Reports including Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch. Then buy the recommended stocks and hang on to them, because. . .

Most of the rest of your investments will tank. . .
You may lose your job. . .
Gasoline could race past $8 a gallon. . .
Houses, including yours, will lose value. It could be a paradise for bargain hunters, but not if you're broke.
Groceries and everything else you buy may cost a fortune. . .
What's more, you might need to buy a gun to protect yourself.
The ten energy investments you'll get in Crude Awakening and three other free Special Investment Reports are the best insurance I've been able to come up with. I can't guarantee you'll make money. No responsible investment analyst will do that. But my newsletter does have the best documented track in the United States for the past five years.

Take a look at my best-performing recommendation. . .

More Oil in North America Than in Saudi Arabia
A "little" oil company with reserves bigger than Alaska's Prudhoe Bay!

If I could tell you just one thing, this would be it: Oil at $50 a barrel makes a whole bunch of alternatives look cheap.

That key fact should guide your whole investment strategy.

The energy sources I recommend in your free reports are able to compete with oil as low as $30. And I don't expect to see oil that cheap ever again.

If it happens, run out and buy every oil stock you can because $30 oil will just be a blip on the way to $100. Don't wait for oil prices to return to "normal." Instead, stake your claim to. . .

The world's largest oil reserves

The oil sands in Alberta, Canada contain the biggest known reserve of oil in the world. Estimates range from 1.7 to 2 trillion barrels of oil trapped in a mixture of sand, water and clay.

This has been known for a long time. But the oil is in the form of a heavy, tar-like substance called bitumen. It costs about $15 to $20 per barrel to extract, compared to a production cost of $5 for Saudi Arabian oil.

With light, sweet crude around $20 for two decades and even dipping to $10 in 1999, no one was interested in oil sands. But now oil is around $60, and guess what. . .

Everyone's really interested in oil sands

Most of the buzz focuses on Alberta's Athabasca region, with an estimated 175 billion barrels of oil. Athabasca is probably the biggest oil field in the world, if the Saudis are lying about their reserves.

The Athabasaca oil sands are nicely profitable with oil at $30 a barrel, meaning a lot of big companies are rushing to cash in. But the problem with the big players is that the results will be hard to detect in their income statements.

For giants like Shell and Chevron, conventional oil and gas will dwarf whatever they make off oil sands. I've got a better idea. . .

A smaller player with a big upside



My choice is already up 496% since I disclosed it to paid subscribers in the pages of Outstanding Investments, my monthly newsletter plus email updates.

You're not too late; the fun has just begun. You'll discover the company in the free Special Investment Report called Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch.

They've been right from the start

My pick has been a key player in oil sands extraction since the pioneering days of 1967.



They own the leases on an estimated 11 to 12 billion barrels of bitumen - a find as big as Prudhoe Bay. A very, very big oil field for such a "little" oil company.

When I say "little" I just mean in comparison to Exxon or BP. I want you to know this isn't some start-up where you gamble on whether they'll bring in the wells or solve the technical problems. They already produce almost 100 million barrels of oil a year, with plans to double within six years.

I'd love to see you get started with this exciting opportunity. Send for your free copy of Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch. And here's a recommendation you'll find in another one of your free reports, Tailpipe Riches: The Race to Build the Car of the Future. . .

A Secret Way to Invest In the Car of the Future
The hybrid engine isn't it.
And the hydrogen car isn't either.

The race is on to design the car of the future. Every player in the industry is scrambling for the prize, and the winner will dominate the world car market for decades.

The three big contenders are the hydrogen fuel cell, the electric hybrid vehicle (like Prius), and the diesel. You're going to be surprised when I tell you the most likely winner.

What's more, I've identified a "secret play" on the winning technology, ready for your portfolio right now. Let's take a look at the three cars in this race. . .

The hydrogen fuel cell gets the most hype

Detroit put all its chips on fuel cell technology, and they've been telling us since the late 1990s that a breakthrough was just around the corner.

In 1997 German-owned DaimlerChrysler actually predicted 100,000 fuel cell engines on the road by 2005. In 2001 General Motors projected about the same timeline.

Even George Bush got into the act, declaring in his 2003 State of the Union message that "America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles."

It didn't happen and it probably won't

The short explanation for Detroit's failure is that the engineering problems were bigger than they thought. On top of that the fuel cell engine costs ten times as much as a conventional engine.

Worse yet, there's also the problem of building a national network of fuel stations where you can fill the tank with hydrogen. Hydrogen isn't found in nature in a usable form and it's very expensive to produce. A national hydrogen rollout could cost $100 billion.

There's still hope that hydrogen will come through in the end, but the National Academy of Sciences believes the "hydrogen economy" is decades away.

Meanwhile, electric hybrids roar ahead

When Toyota announced a heavy investment in electric hybrids a few years back, Detroit snickered. To them it just seemed like a halfway solution on the way to the fuel cell car.

Wrong.

I don't need to tell you that the electric-hybrid Prius is a sensation, and Detroit is now rushing to play catch-up. They'll come out with a number of hybrid models in the next few years, many of them using technology licensed from Toyota.

What's more, the electric hybrid is not just an under-powered small car. Toyota now offers a high-end SUV hybrid with better acceleration than the standard model!

So hybrids are where it's at, right? Wrong again.

The Prius has problems.

First off, the gas mileage on the Prius is not all it's cracked up to be. Consumers have noticed, and some aren't happy.

What happened is that the EPA tests vehicles under ideal conditions on a flat surface. In the real world, it looks like Prius's mileage is not so hot. Also, most of the hybrid's big mileage gains occur in stop-and-start city traffic. On an open road, the conventional engine actually gets better gas mileage.

When you look at the Prius's true mileage, there are plenty of conventional vehicles that do as well or better.

Add in the high extra cost of the hybrid engine, and some say you have to drive the car a hundred thousand miles to recoup the extra $9,000 or so you pay for the fancy technology.

There's a third alternative, a "sleeper" technology that's going to surprise everyone. . .


And the winner is. . .

The humble old diesel engine --the third and final competitor for Car of the Future.

How can that be? Diesels are loud, dirty and smelly. A pollution nightmare.

You can hear a diesel truck from a mile away, see the soot from halfway down the block, and smell the exhaust as it rolls by.

Except - surprise - those diesels you hear and smell are antiques. Thanks to new technology, diesels aren't so dirty anymore and the gas mileage is better than ever!

Here's what happened: Europeans have to pay heavy gasoline taxes and they worry about global warming, so they invested in the diesel engine as a stopgap, just in case the hydrogen car hit a snag.

As you know, hydrogen DID hit a snag. Now the stopgap looks like the winner in the great auto race.

You see, diesel gets about 30 percent more miles to the gallon than gasoline, and those savings are real, in any kind of driving conditions. What's more, people who worry about global warming prefer diesel because it emits up to 20 percent less carbon dioxide. But wait, it gets even better. . .

Diesels have a huge, surprise advantage

Diesels now rival traditional gasoline engines for quiet, and European refineries have removed most of the pollutants from the fuel. The engines cost more, but the gas savings almost make up the difference. I'll tell you a sleeper stock - it's not a car company - that's the best way to play the diesel revolution.

But meanwhile there's an even better way to invest than the hardware under the hood. Diesel's biggest edge is something you'd never expect. . .

You don't need crude oil to make diesel fuel

You can make it from coal, plant matter, or even cooking oil. (No kidding! A restaurant can invest in a cooking oil converter kit that lets you fry a batch of potatoes and later reuse the oil in your delivery truck.)

In a few pages, I explain how liquefied coal is one of the big technologies of the future no matter what, whether the diesel engine wins or not. But if diesel wins the auto race, coal will be the biggest thing since folks traded in their horses for cars. King Crude may be dead, once and for all.

How bad does the world need these new technologies? REAL bad. My readers have already profited, with one pick up 431 percent as this is written, and two others up 164 percent and 179 percent.

We reaped those gains because, whatever the future holds, the oil crisis right now is bad enough. . .

In India they make fuel from cow dung

Every year and indeed every month the world will grow more desperate for the alternative fuels and technologies I'm talking about.

India imports more than 75 percent of its crude oil. They're so desperate for alternatives they recently promoted cow dung as an important energy source. A new use for sacred cows!

The problem is, Asians these days are buying cars like. . .well, like Americans.

The Chinese would have to buy 650 million vehicles to reach American levels of car ownership. That's not likely. But a fraction of that figure will create an oil and pollution crisis big enough to finish us off.

In the vast markets of India and China, a vehicle that runs without crude oil will be irresistible. But there's still more to the diesel story. . .

A hybrid diesel engine is the next step

A combination of hybrid and diesel technology will take the fuel savings up a notch. Make that two notches. And it will happen soon.

An MIT study predicts the diesel hybrid could outperform a hydrogen fuel cell engine on both gasoline mileage and carbon emissions - within ten years.

In other words, the hydrogen fuel cell car may never get to market. It's dead in the cradle thanks to breakthroughs elsewhere.

Is there a catch? And how can you make money?

There is indeed a catch to all this, but the catch is where you'll find the profit opportunity.

The obvious play is to buy the big automakers like Toyota that own the leading hybrid or diesel technologies.

Obvious, but wrong. The auto industry is on its way to becoming a replay of the airline industry. The competition is already cutthroat, with razor-thin margins. Now we're going to see General Motors and Ford file for bankruptcy.

When that happens, they'll walk away from the pension and healthcare obligations that are killing them. Their plants are in political battleground states so the politicians will help them stay afloat. They're "too big to fail."

Once they're operating under Chapter Eleven, like the airlines, the auto makers will launch profit-killing price wars that may last for decades.

Emissions are the key to profits

No, the way to profit from the diesel revolution is to buy the company that's going to remove the last obstacle that stands in the way of diesel: pollutants.

You see, the Europeans still haven't been able to remove the last bit of filth from diesel exhaust. They've just put up with it for the sake of fuel economy and lower carbon emissions.

Whoever comes up with the best diesel tailpipe solution stands to make a killing. And a high-tech American company has done exactly that. They've come up with a diesel filter that's far superior to what the Europeans now have.

A very surprising angle will make you money

Diesel tailpipes will be a billion-dollar market within two years - an increase of more than 80-fold from the year 2000. As the oil shortage deepens and the world scrambles for fuel mileage, the company I'm telling you about will be on every front page in the country.

This company is a technology leader that created one of the most important inventions of the '90s telecomm boom - but I'm not talking about Microsoft or Intel or Sun or any of the obvious choices. The company I have in mind keeps a lower profile.


Now they've come up with ANOTHER breakthrough technology that few investors know about.

My crystal ball says their technology is going to wind up in 200 million vehicles. I'll tell you all about the stock in a FREE Special Investment Report called Tailpipe Riches: The Race to Build the Car of the Future. It's one of four free reports you get when you subscribe.

Subscribe now and get your free copy. You'll want to snap up this breakthrough technology before it's too late.

But meanwhile you can also make a bundle off the liquefied coal story. . .

The Great Coal Rush
It's clean, cheap, and soon it will be liquid

While the oil runs out, there's still plenty of coal. The world has enough coal to last for 300 years at current rates. Coal already accounts for more than half of our electricity.

But coal is dirty, right? And there's no way it can power cars, right?

Wrong, and wrong again. Coal can be cleaned up AND it can power your SUV. However, it's not cheap to do. It's only worthwhile when a barrel of oil costs more than $30.

Which means you're in luck if you own stock in a coal company, as my readers do, because oil is way more than $30 a barrel and it's a good bet it will stay there. Forever.

As I write this, my readers sport an 88 percent gain on my coal recommendation.

Coal is set to replace oil almost everywhere



You're now one of a handful of people who know about clean coal and you're going to make a fortune off it. I want to send you all the details in another FREE Special Investment Report called Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. It's one of four reports I send to all new subscribers.



Let's look at how big the opportunity really is. . .

The U.S. and China both have a growing problem with the price of oil and with the unstable countries they have to buy it from. Meanwhile, the U.S. and China both have HUGE reserves of coal.

Add in Australia and Canada and you've got four countries that you could call the OPEC of coal. They own just about all the coal there is.

The U.S. alone has 254 billion tons of proven coal reserves, or about 25 percent of the world total. Compare that to Saudi Arabia, with 24 percent of the world's oil (if you believe them.)

Meanwhile, the Chinese economy is doubling every ten years and has a lion's appetite for electricity. The Chinese will have to give up that growth rate or build hundreds of new power plants, one or the other. They have no choice.

China is starved for electricity. . .
And we're not doing so well ourselves!

Electricity could be China's biggest roadblock to growth. Already, blackouts and brownouts happen every day all over the country. Factories by the thousand are forced to shut down from time to time. Many are allowed to operate only during off-peak hours. Children in some cities do their homework by candlelight.

With an economy that grows eight or nine percent every year, and electric usage soaring at the same rate, the Chinese have no choice but to build hundreds of new power plants. And most of those plants are going to run on coal.

In the United States we have a power crisis of our own. We're at the limit of our generating capacity. We have our own brownouts during peak-demand times. We, too, need to build hundreds of new power plants. Yet the public still doesn't want nuclear power.

A coal boom is inevitable

You do the math: we face a crude oil shortage. . .nuclear power gives people the willies. . .we've got plenty of coal in the ground. . .we've got a choice between more power plants or deep recession and unemployment.

Everything points to coal.

As this goes to press, my readers have gained 88 percent on my favorite coal investment. You'll get details on the company in the free Special Investment Report called Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead.

The gains have just begun. We can thank ever-increasing demand for coal and ever-higher prices. All that's left is to solve the pollution problem. And as you'll see in the next few pages, that's about to happen. I've got a way you can play the clean coal technology.

A safe, conservative way to play the Great Coal Rush

The safest way to profit is to own some coal and wait for the price to go up. It will.

I've found a great, long-term stock that just came on the market in 2004, as a spin-off from another company. Already, this new kid on the block is one of the five largest coal companies in the United States, with 13 mines in our richest coal regions, plus 100 electric power plants in 29 different states.

This outfit has a staggering 1.8 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves. That's enough to last 28 years at current rates of production.



The top execs have an average of 26 years of experience apiece. They employ the most advanced technology and achieve some of the highest levels of efficiency of any coal producer on the market.

With an abundant, cheap replacement for oil, these guys just about can't go wrong. Their coal is going to look better and better with oil at $50, $70 and even $100 per barrel. You'll receive all the details in Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead.

But the FREE report also gives you another coal play - a company with a much higher upside. Let me tell you about it. . .

Clean Coal is Here

Two things stand in the way of coal. One of them is pollution and the other is the cost of moving the stuff.

China gets about two-thirds of its energy from coal, and it shows. Sixteen of the world's twenty most polluted cities are in China. No kidding, the place is filthy. China has just about the worst air and water quality in the world, resulting in epidemic health problems.

Here in the United States, we've spent hard dollars to keep coal dirt out of our air. Even so, political quarrels still rage over coal-fired power plants. Now people also worry about global warming. Dirty coal is a problem.

In both countries, the economic growth we enjoy is about to collide head-on with our desire for clean air.

What a great opportunity to get rich! Every breakthrough in clean coal technology could be worth billions to investors. And here's one for your portfolio. . .

Liquid coal to the rescue

The most promising technology right now is called coal liquefaction. I won't go into the engineering details, but the end result is a liquid fuel that burns clean, without sulfur and other pollutants. Any power plant that burns coal (that is, nearly all of them) can burn the liquid, too.

And the diesels of the future will burn it, too.

But China is really ramping up this new technology because of the second problem I mentioned - the cost of transporting coal. Most of China's vast coal reserves are in the north, while most of its industrial development is in the south.

China's rail and highway network is not up to the job of moving so much coal across such a vast distance. As I write this, southern China actually imports coal from abroad. It's as if Hawaii imported pineapples. But the Chinese in the south have had no choice. Until now, that is. . .

Liquefied coal can move through a pipeline, like petroleum.

Liquefied coal doesn't have to move on trains or trucks over expensive road and rail networks. It can flow through a pipe.

Add up all the advantages, and liquefied coal can solve China's biggest energy problems. It's clean, it's easy to move, and they don't have to buy it from foreigners.

The Chinese leadership doesn't have to debate everything for years the way we do in the States. They're moving aggressively into liquefied coal NOW. In fact, they aim to replace ten percent of their current oil imports with liquid coal by 2013.

That's fast! They've already started to build. . .

The world's first commercial coal-to-liquid fuel plant

What's more, they've got three more plants on the drawing boards. Big players like Royal Dutch/Shell own a piece of the project, but liquefied coal is a drop in the ocean for a big company like Shell. Shell's stock won't get much of a bounce.

Instead, let me tell you about a smaller company -- a better way to play this big Chinese "moon project." It's in your Special Investment Report, Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead.



Turning on the Juice reveals a little-known American company that holds clean coal technology the Chinese have got to have. You've still got time to buy - this is a long-term core holding that will pay for a big chunk of your retirement.

You can receive this report FREE, plus. . .

Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money
Tailpipe Riches: The Race to Build the Car of the Future, and
Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch.

In fact, subscribe for two years - with a full refund guarantee -- and you receive up to seven Special Investment Reports free. Click here if you'd like to order.

You'll discover everything you need to know in the free Special Investment Reports. You see, with the help of these special reports you can. . .

Profit from something few investors know

The Chinese are turning their country into an open-air lab to develop new energy technologies. The new technologies that come out of their efforts will be exported all over the world. Later in this letter I'll tell you about their breakthrough in nuclear technology.

The American company that's helping China liquefy coal is doing the same thing in India, another giant country with almost no oil. They've also got a stake in a big Philippine deal.

In other words, they're the technology leader in a fast-growing industry most investors don't even know about.

And if diesels powered by liquefied coal become the car of the future, there's no telling how high my coal picks can go!

While most investors wait for the price of oil to come down and for things to return to "normal," you can position yourself to profit from the new, long-term energy crisis.

Keep reading and discover. . .

The fastest-growing energy source in the world. Also the cleanest and safest. But America may be sidelined. I tell you more in a few pages, and everything you need to know in one or your free reports, Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead.
Good-bye global warming! A Chinese breakthrough may create cheap, safe, clean electric power for the whole world. I've got a safe angle to profit from China's massive investment in electric generating plants.
One of the few oil refiners that can handle low-grade, sour crude - a critical bottleneck as the world runs out of light, sweet crude. We're up 179 percent as I write this.
A "minor" sector of the energy market is set to grow 17 times over. I'll give you my best pick.
But please act now. The crisis could hit overnight. . .

Wild Cards
How Oil Could Go to $100 in 24 Hours

If you want to bury your head in the sand and pretend Saudi Arabia has plenty of oil, be my guest. But Outstanding Investments is for investors who want to face reality and be prepared.

Every shred of evidence points to no Saudi buffer for world oil markets. And that's a real problem because oil consumption soared from 52 million barrels a day to 82 million in the last 19 years, and it's expected to grow to 120 million in the next 20. . .

If the oil can be found. Very doubtful.

High-priced oil is here to stay

There are three ways oil could race past $100 a barrel: it may get there gradually. . .or on a faster pace of a year or two. . .or overnight, literally within 24 hours.

Pick any one of the three. No matter how you look at it, it's a sure thing the days of cheap oil are over. We're never going to see $30 oil again and we may never see $40 oil.

"You never really run out of oil," says a Houston energy consultant named Henry Groppe. "But many years ago we ran out of $2 a barrel oil, then we ran out of $25 oil, and now we're running out of $40 oil."

That's for sure. And that means you need to readjust your holdings. Outstanding Investments has a strategy that will profit handsomely from this inevitable trend. But our strategy could profit even more because. . .

The disaster could hit very fast

Saudi production could fall over a cliff almost overnight. There could be a deep, sharp reduction in Saudi oil production literally any day.

It's guesswork, but energy expert Matthew Simmons says, ". . .it will take energy forecasters and policy-makers by total surprise. Not a single serious energy plan devised in the past three decades has envisioned such a scenario."

He's told interviewers that Saudi output could drop 30 to 40 percent from the already low level of just five million barrels. Simmons doesn't claim to know for sure, but I believe he's right.

In the big oil crisis of 1973, oil went to $100 in current 2005 dollars.

Back then, the problem was just political. Angered by U.S. support for Israel, the Arab oil producers cut our supply. After things calmed down, there was plenty of oil. This time the problem is real and there's no quick fix.

There's a sword hanging over our heads, and most people don't even know. Just consider this. . .

Three quick disasters could send oil over $100 in 24 hours

I've spotted three trends to watch that could crash markets and cause a recession.

You already know that the 2005 hurricane season was the worst on record, and the one before that was almost as bad. In 2005 there were 27 tropical storms. Weather experts could hardly believe it, but the last one formed in December, a month after the "end" of the hurricane season.

It's not as weird as a blizzard in July. But it's close.

Worse, the storms are more powerful than ever before. It seems that a tropical storm is more likely now to become a deadly category four or category five hurricane.

Two reasons for the monster storms

The first reason is there's a normal cycle of low hurricane activity followed by a period of high hurricane activity. Each phase can last for several decades.

Clearly, we're in the high phase and it will probably go on for years. That's bad enough, but it's normal. But now you have to add. . .

The danger of climate change

Bear in mind that climate change can be caused by either human activity or natural causes. And either way, the jury is still out. Despite what you may hear from the mainstream media, the case for global warming is far from closed.

But global warming believers are already blaming the monster hurricanes on climate change.

They may be right.

The level of hurricane activity we're seeing has no precedent in the hundred years or so that scientists have been counting and categorizing storms. Meanwhile, a big chunk of our energy industry is located in the worst possible place.

Not in my back yard,
And soon, nowhere at all

Americans have largely banned oil and gas drilling and liquefied natural gas ports from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. They don't like oil refineries, either. Plus it's well known that the Gulf of Mexico is energy-rich.

So America ended up with a huge part of its energy infrastructure located on the Gulf coast.

A lot of it was knocked out by Katrina and Rita. As I write this in early 2006, the Gulf coast energy industry is still not back to normal. Gasoline, fuel oil and natural gas prices remain at record levels. And Gulf oil production won't be back to normal until summer. . .

Just in time for the next hurricane season

If the 2006 hurricane season is a repeat, it could be the end of some 20 percent of America's oil and gas industry. And it could all happen in 24 hours.

It's hard to picture that oil companies are going to keep on investing in a region where they get knocked out every year. And the onshore plants can't be moved to Boston and San Francisco, where they're not wanted anyway.

We may be staring at a permanent loss of a large part of our energy industry.

Wild Card Number Two:
War and revolution at the chokepoints

World oil supplies are so tight the price could go through the roof if we lose just a couple of million barrels of daily production out of the world total of 82 million.

Production is running full tilt and consumers snap up every barrel that comes out of the ground. There's no buffer (despite what the Saudis claim).

A sudden leap to $80 a barrel, not to mention $100, could tip us over the edge into recession. The immediate cause could be war or revolution in an oil-producing country.

Toss in another bad hurricane season at the same time and it could be the end of our way of life.

Saudi Arabia itself is a prime candidate for revolution. You might think Al Qaeda's main target is the United States, but in fact the main target all along has been control of Saudi Arabia.

The World Trade Center was just a stop on the road to Riyadh, as they see it.

But my own pick for disaster is Nigeria. This African country is the world's number 12 oil producer, and a big supplier to the United States.

The Nigerian wild card

The country is seething with revolution. The government - if you want to call it a government - admits that thieves steal as much as 200,000 barrels of oil a day and sell it on the black market. Off the record, experts put the bootleg oil as high as 650,000 barrels a day.

That kind of oil generates huge sums of cash, and a lot of the money is plowed into arms for the rebels. There's no shortage of poor, hopeless young men willing to use the weapons. Three Nigerians out of five live in poverty.

Caught in the middle of all this are big oil companies like Shell and Chevron. In some parts of the country their facilities have been shut down and they've been kicked out. If you want to get punched in Nigeria, just tell a native you work for Shell.

Terrorism is Wild Card Number Three

You won't be surprised to learn terrorism is the third wild card that could create an instant crisis. In fact, a former CIA Director recently joined some former oil executives and government experts in a risk analysis exercise.

They forecast three very likely events that could bring the roof down on our heads.

One of them was civil war in Nigeria.

The other two were both terror incidents.

Intelligence agencies know the terrorists have especially targeted oil facilities and infrastructure. It's an international game of cat and mouse where the terrorists are looking for a weak point day and night, high and low, while we try to find them and stop them in time.

It's only a matter of time until they succeed. It's like a thief checking every door in the neighborhood every night. One night he'll find a door that's not locked.



Are you getting the picture? The good scenario is that the oil price will gradually climb to $100 over the next few years.

The worst scenario is that it will go there next week, or next month, or next year.

Either way, you'll can gain anywhere from 100% to 1000% on the investments I recommend. The only question is HOW MUCH MONEY YOU'LL MAKE and HOW FAST YOU'LL MAKE IT.

The investments I reveal in your four FREE Special Reports are your ticket to survival and even wealth in the midst of recession and chaos. You receive full details on all ten recommendations as soon as you subscribe to Outstanding Investments.

The Natural Gas Bottleneck -
A market set to multiply 17 times
according to government figures

When oil started getting pricey during the 1970s, America switched to natural gas in a big way. Natural gas now supplies about 24 percent of our total energy needs including a big chunk of our electricity.

The move made sense. We had plenty of natural gas, and what's more it's a clean-burning fuel that cuts down on pollution. But like any kind of fossil fuel, there's only so much of it. Now we're running out.

After the big hurricanes of 2005, everyone can see the U.S. is vulnerable. We didn't have the gas supplies we needed when we needed them. It's been a cold, expensive winter for a lot of Americans.

The gas shortage will be hard to solve

America has placed vast areas off limits to drilling. Not only millions of acres of federal lands, but also most of the offshore areas on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

These gas-rich regions are off-limits even though natural gas doesn't create spills. If there's an accident, it just escapes into the air. And drilling rigs are mostly out of sight of the resort properties on the beach.

The regulations have left only the Gulf of Mexico a.k.a. hurricane alley for offshore drilling and natural gas production. But while we've painted ourselves into a corner. .

The rest of the world burns up natural gas to get rid of it!

If you saw your heating bills shoot up this winter, you'll be frustrated to learn there's plenty of gas worldwide. It's a byproduct of oil wells, and if an oil field isn't close to a big population center or a pipeline, the gas is just flared off.



The rest of the world burns off or "strands" as much as 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. That's equivalent to 1.7 billion barrels of oil totally wasted every year!

The problem is that gas, unlike oil, is hard to transport. You can't build pipelines across oceans. And big oceans separate North America from the cheap gas that's now going to waste. This energy bottleneck is your chance to multiply your money up to 17 times.

Because of the bottleneck problem, the price of natural gas is much higher in North America than in the countries that are swimming in the stuff. It's a huge opportunity, and I've prepared a free Special Investment Report to help you profit. I call it Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money.

Take a look at the free report's best play on natural gas. . .

An easy answer to the gas shortage,
With a 45-year safety record

There's an easy solution to our natural gas shortage and it's been around for years. It's called liquefied natural gas or LNG.

If you turn natural gas into a liquid by super-cooling it, you can transport 600 times as much gas in the same space. One LNG tanker can carry as much as 600 ships hauling natural gas in vapor form.

And despite what you may have heard, LNG is safe. With 40,000 LNG tanker voyages spanning the last 45 years and crossing 60 million miles of ocean, there hasn't been a single major accident. Not one.

No explosions, no fireballs, no gruesome casualties. Sorry, Hollywood.

You'll learn everything you need to know in Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money, devoted just to this topic. I'll rush you a free copy when you try my newsletter, Outstanding Investments.

A market set to multiply up to 17 times

As things stand now, the U.S. gets only one percent of its natural gas in the form of LNG, but with the energy crunch things are going to change.

The government's Energy Information Agency believes LNG will provide from 14 to 17 percent of our total gas supply by 2025. That means a 14- to 17-fold increase in LNG.

Better yet, that's going to be a higher percentage of a bigger market, too. The EIA projects total gas consumption - LNG and vapor combined -- will boom 30 percent in the next ten years. And meanwhile a fierce bidding war has broken out between Europe, Asia and the U.S. for every available ounce of LNG.

Would you to like to sprint from a one percent market share to a 17 percent market share in a growth industry? I would!

Destined to dominate

The boom was actually underway before the current energy crunch hit. LNG trade soared 55 percent in the ten years ending in 2004. This little market is growing like crazy.

Some analysts even predict LNG will surpass King Crude to dominate the world's energy markets. The CEO of Shell says within ten years gas will be a bigger part of their business than oil.

Please join me and the happy, increasingly rich readers of Outstanding Investments. As I write these words, we're up 109 percent on my best pick. . .

The Best Pure Play on Natural Gas

Finding the right investment in the booming LNG market is not as easy as it sounds. For example, ExxonMobil is so large that buying it as a play on LNG would be like buying a ranch to own a steer.

We need a pure LNG play that can grow two hundred percent, or three hundred percent or even more. And I found it! Readers have already had the chance to double their money, and I think we may see this stock double, and then double again.

Make five to ten times your money in natural gas

My top pick sports a $30 billion market cap. It's a behemoth to most of us but in the energy business it qualifies as a small, nimble player.

This company is an international powerhouse in the gas industry -- especially in the liquefied gas segment that's set to multiply seventeen-fold.

They owe their success to a soup-to-nuts strategy that takes the gas from wildcat exploration through production, transportation and distribution. They're masters in every facet of the business.

They control an energy chokepoint

The U.S. has only five ports that can handle LNG and this "little" energy company has two of them locked up. The ports have become a bottleneck - a problem for the nation but a profit windfall for you! It will be years before new ports come on line, if ever.

And unlike some natural gas companies, my favorite actually finds more gas than it sells. When you invest in a natural gas company, you have to be careful of the "replacement ratio" because a lot of companies post big profits while they deplete their reserves. They're just selling off their assets.

Not these guys. They find nearly three cubic feet of gas for every cubic foot they sell. In this business, that's phenomenal. With prices set to go up, their vast reserves are an appreciating asset that could make you rich.

Up 38 percent every year for seven years

Even if you didn't know what industry they were in, this company's numbers would make your eyes pop. Their sales grew an average of 38 percent per year every year from 1997 through 2004. That period included a near-recession in the oil business.

My selection has the kind of high-growth potential you'd expect to find in a risky tech stock, but what a difference! Their product is a natural resource we know everyone is sure to need.

You profit even if America blows it

The weak spot for LNG is the small number of ports that can handle the incoming tankers. There are only five in the United States. For a while, that didn't matter since gas was cheap and plentiful. The ports weren't even fully used.

Now the port problem has become a possible growth-killer. Of course, my recommended company has two of the ports and they're sitting pretty for now.

But what does the future hold? Some fifty new U.S. ports are under study, but environmentalists and NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) types are fighting them tooth and nail.

But you know what?
It doesn't matter to this company or to your pocketbook.

If Americans are actually dumb enough to vote down safe, clean LNG, the rest of the world will snap it up and the company I recommend will sell it to them. They've rolled out plans for new LNG terminals all over the globe.

71 percent of the LNG market is Asian already and global LNG trade is roaring ahead with or without North America. You can't lose. In fact, there's a certain way you can win very big if Americans turn down LNG.



You'll learn all about it in your free Special Investment Report, Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money. You receive this report and three more to boot when you subscribe to my newsletter plus weekly email. Meanwhile, here's another way to profit. . .

Earn a Six Percent Dividend
And Double Your Capital, Too!

LNG is a possible grand-slam four-run homer in natural gas. But you can also profit from North American companies that don't need to ship their gas across an ocean.

And if you're fed up with the pitiful interest rates you get on bank accounts and CDs, I've got the best news you've heard this year.

Your free copy of Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money recommends a Canadian gas company that pays a six percent dividend as I write these words.

The company is an energy trust, also known as a royalty or resource trust. The idea is that a group of investors pool their resources to buy a cash-generating asset that provides long-term income.

You're probably familiar with the income trust idea from REITs (real estate investment trusts). Same basic concept: A REIT receives and distributes income from a portfolio of real estate properties, while an energy trust pays income from a collection of oil or gas properties. If the assets appreciate, you can also reap a handsome capital gain.

But you have to watch out for this deadly pitfall

All of this comes with a warning: There's a difference between a real estate trust and a gas trust. Real estate doesn't get used up. Gas does.

That means it's unwise to invest in any old energy income trust. Some of them are just selling off their treasure trove of natural gas and distributing the profits. Eventually the gas will run out and your share of the deal may become worthless.

If you look into it, you'll find Canadian energy trusts that pay dividends of ten percent or even twelve percent. Sounds great, until you realize they're paying out all the cash and the business will eventually die.

Buy a gas trust that's in it for the long term

Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money reveals a trust that solves the problem. At about six percent, their dividend is a bit lower, but they retain cash and extend the life of the trust through acquisitions and exploration.

They pay out only about half their cash-flow. They invest the rest in finding new, long-life, high-quality gas projects. What's more, they're darn good at it.

They've been finding four dollars worth
of new gas for every dollar they invest.

That means you can enjoy the best of both worlds - income and capital appreciation. What's more, the potential for long-term gain is eye-popping.

Just with their current reserves they can keep paying out dividends for another 20 years, compared to ten years for their competitors. But given their success in finding new gas, and with prices headed up, there's a good chance the dividend will increase and the reserves will, too!

You'll be collecting the dividend AND building your assets. The more you learn, the better this company gets.

Best of all, the insiders have been consistent, long-term buyers of the stock. When directors and senior officers put their own money on the line, it's a very good sign they believe in the company.

You'll learn more about this dynamite investment in your free copy of Ride the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money. Read it and reap!

Profit from a Nuclear Breakthrough

Keep reading if you'd like to discover a new technology that sounds like a miracle even though every word is true.

What's more, this breakthrough can fatten your personal bank account.

If things play out the way I expect, fossil fuel power plants will join wood-burning stoves on history's dust heap. You'll learn all the details in one of your free reports, Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. It's the number one way to profit from. . .

The worldwide boom in nuclear power

After a couple of freak accidents several decades ago, Americans decided they wanted nothing to do with nuclear power ever, anywhere. The accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island killed nuclear power in the United States.

We're just about the only people with that attitude.

The rest of the world took a look at the safety problems, solved them, and forged ahead. France now gets 77 percent of its electric power from nuclear plants. Japan and South Korea get 39 percent - and the two of them have more than 20 new plants on the way.

Belgium, Sweden, Finland. . .they've all gone nuclear. It seems like everyone but us is building nukes. China plans to boost its nuclear power capacity by 500 percent.

In fact, for the past 40 years, nuclear has been the fastest growing power source in the world. And now it's really taking off.

What's more, all the hundreds of plants worldwide have logged thousands of reactor-years without a single accident. You see, Asians and Europeans have discovered something Americans refuse to see: nuclear power beats fossil fuels hands down.

Nuclear is safer, cheaper and cleaner.


In Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead, you'll find out how the worldwide boom in nuclear power has sent the price of uranium through the roof. Uranium doubled in the last three years, and it will probably double again in the next two.

Turning on the Juice reveals my best pick among the uranium stocks. The company has huge uranium reserves, plus ready access to China and its massive nuclear program. Best of all, this company controls a production bottleneck the U.S. nuclear industry can't do without.

But exciting as that is, it's nothing compared to my best play on the worldwide nuclear power boom. . .

Nuclear power plants will roll off an assembly line

The Chinese are charging ahead with a new type of nuclear power plant. I predict utilities will build hundreds and maybe thousands of these new plants all over the globe. Electricity will become super-cheap. And eventually we'll see an economic boom worldwide like we've never seen before.

The new plants will be walk-away safe. A meltdown is not just unlikely, it's impossible.
There's no danger of radioactivity venting into air or water.
No need for huge cooling towers or water. No billion-dollar pressure dome.
Almost no waste, and what waste there is can be stored safely on the premises.
No need to fear a terrorist attack.
You'll learn all the details in your free Special Investment Report, Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead . The technology uses an alternative way to harvest the energy of the atom - a way that Americans discovered and then rejected decades ago.

The Chinese plan to mass produce the reactors. The plants will be modular and factory-made, built to last forty years, ready to ship anywhere in the world and assembled like Legos.

A Chinese scientist boasts, "Eventually these new reactors will compete strategically and in the end they will win. When that happens, it will leave traditional nuclear power in ruins."

The man has reason to be cocky. They've already tested the prototype by turning off the coolant and letting the plant cool down by itself. That would be totally unthinkable with a conventional reactor.

The ultimate solution to global warming

These plants will get built by the hundred because the world needs cheap, clean energy. But they'll get built by the thousand if the world decides to get serious about global warming. Selected stocks will take off into the stratosphere.

I think the Chinese will pull it off, and we're going to see a new industrial revolution.

You need to move soon, because the Chinese are plunging full speed ahead. Subscribe now and get your free copy of Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead.

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Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch

Special Investment Report #2:
Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead

Special Investment Report #3:
Tailpipe Riches: The Race to Build the Car of the Future

Special Investment Report #4:
Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money

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The "little" oil company that owns a stake in Canada's oil sands - a stake with more proven oil reserves than Alaska's Prudhoe Bay! We already hold a 496% gain.
Why the car of the future will probably be a diesel hybrid - and the high-tech American leader with the breakthrough diesel filter.
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Why the world is running out of light, sweet crude oil. Plus, one of the few oil refiners that can handle low-grade, sour crude - a bottleneck stock if there ever was one. We're up 179%.
The American tech company that's teamed up with China to produce clean, liquefied coal. Maybe they'll dethrone King Crude once and for all!
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My readers have reaped the gains in the gold bull market. And how! Open positions in my portfolio stand at PLUS 365%. . .PLUS 233%. . .PLUS 246%. . .PLUS 101%. . .

And that's not even the full list. In this free report, I reveal why I see gold going past one thousand dollars an ounce. You'll learn WHY it's just about inevitable - and why the coming energy crisis makes a leap in gold even more likely.

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When it comes to crude oil, tanker companies are great way to multiply your profits. While the price of a barrel doubled, the cost of shipping the oil went up nearly four times! Revenues for shippers soared a thousand percent in 2004, and all 1,500 oil tankers worldwide are booked solid.

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The Special Investment Reports I've told you about so far are like a master's degree in resource investing. The seventh and last report will make you the equivalent of a Ph.D.

You'll be primed for it, too, after you've seen the money you can make just buying the stocks straight-up, without fancy leverage. My seventh report, The Trader's Code, takes you to whole new level:

It's a trading system that's capable of doubling your money every three months.

Doubling your money every three months is good enough to turn a $5,000 investment into as much as $2.5 million in only three years. Can you imagine?

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The situation with world oil supplies is so critical
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You're going to need them. Short-term, nothing can cushion the U.S. economy against the coming oil shock. Not the President, not the Prius. It's simply too late. . .for the nation as a whole. But not for you as an individual.

Eventually, the amazing new technologies I've described will take the place of crude oil. But meanwhile, difficult times lie dead ahead, like the iceberg in front of the Titanic. And like the Titanic, the American economy is too big to turn on a dime.

So head for the lifeboats - the ten recommendations in the four reports I send to all subscribers. And if you want, you can get more valuable investment ideas in the three extra reports for two-year subscribers.

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Justice Litle
Editor, Outstanding Investments