We began analyzing Student Transportation's (STB) common stock back in August when we were alerted to the fact that it received approval to register its shares on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and that it was paying a nearly 8.9% dividend yield. Though we are currently rating STB as an underperforming 'Avoid' and we have expressed our opinion about STB's dividend policy in relation to its capital expenditures and acquisition program, we are intrigued by the fact that STB and its two largest competitors Firstgroup PLC (FGROF.PK) and National Express (NXPGY.PK) offer above average dividend yields to shareholders.

Student Transportation is the third largest provider of school business transportation services in North America. The company operates in two segments, school bus transportation (98.5% of revenues) and an oil & gas portfolio (1.5% of revenues). The company operates buses in Ontario Canada and 13 states in the U.S., mostly in the

Americans are notoriously attached to their cars, but high oil prices in 2007 and 2008 led many to get on a bus or train. According to a 2009 paper Transit Ridership Models: Present Status and Future Needs [pdf] by Grace Galluci and John D Allen, Ph.D. from Chicago's Regional Transportation Authority, current published transit ridership models do not yet incorporate changes in gasoline prices. The authors consider this a serious omission, since, in addition to the obvious intuitive link between gas prices and ridership, they found a strong correlation between gas prices and transit ridership using CRTA ridership data and local gasoline prices. The following chart comes from this paper, and shows ridership following the local gas price (with a slight lag.)



Gas Price and Transit Profits

Although it may be safe to assume that transit ridership will increase with rising gas prices, a higher gas price may not make

A mini-portfolio of stocks that not only are green, but should outperform the market in an environment of increasing concern about climate change and peak oil.

This is the third annual list of green stocks I have published. In 2008, it was a list of ten speculative alternative energy companies (in three parts) that I thought might catch public notice that year. As we all now know, 2008 was a horrible year for speculative stocks, and my stocks were no exception, losing an average of 55% that year, although that still ended up being better than seven out of nine of the sector mutual funds and ETFs that I was then tracking.

In 2009, my ten green stock picks were more conservative, with a focus on profitable companies with good cash flow. The results have been better than I hoped. These 10 picks gained an average of 57%, beating my

Stocks may be expensive now, but they won't be forever. Five Peak Oil plays to buy when they're cheap again: Two bus companies, two rails, and an ETF.

Two weeks ago, I told you why I feel that the market is more likely to head down than up from here (it's been flat since then.) I've been selling covered calls on my holdings, several of which have been called away. I plan to sit on the cash until the market has fallen at least 10%, after which I may start selling cash covered puts, but I won't start buying in earnest until the level of fear in the markets is much higher than it is today.

To occupy myself during the wait, I'm putting together my shopping list of stocks I plan to buy when next they are cheap. This first installment is a set of clean transport stocks, which