By Lara Crigger

As you're filling up your tank this weekend, it'll be hard not to think about the cost. Back when gas was $4/gallon, many of us made seemingly radical changes to our lifestyle, cutting back how much we went out to eat, riding the subway more, even moving closer to work.

From drill rig counts to oil/gas ratios and renewables, Pierce Points author Dave Forest shares his thoughts on the direction the energy sector is headed in this exclusive Energy Report interview. Since predicting commodity prices in the short to medium term is almost impossible, Dave looks for companies with a solid track record and the potential for discovery, which is where the real money investing in the exploration sector is made.

The Energy Report: Dave, one of the popular investing theories that you'll see in energy is that there should be a 6:1 ratio of oil to natural gas and that we're starting to see that ratio rise, which makes natural gas look like a great play. Can you give us your perspective on that investment theory?

By Richard Read

It's good news/bad news day for T. Boone Pickens. On the one hand, his push for natural gas vehicles seems to be gaining traction in D.C. On the other, his new V-Vehicle Company in Monroe, Louisiana is about to get a little competition from two doors down. Chinese exile Yang Rong -- former head of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. and formerly one of China's three richest men -- is setting up shop in Alabama to produce clean-tech vehicles. No word on where the factory will be located or even what form these vehicles will take, but they'll supposedly be for sale across the U.S. Your move, Pickens. [Reuters via BusinessInsider]

By Ucilia Wang

The U.S. Department of Treasury on Thursday released some guidelines for an eagerly awaited cash grant program that aims to ease the financing dry spell experienced by many renewable energy project developers.

By Julian Murdoch

It's all over the headlines: T. Boone Pickens' huge wind farm has been scrapped - or at least postponed. After warning last year that he was having difficulty securing financing for the project, and was terminating land leases in March, this week's announcement isn't a huge shock, but it does bring up some things to think about, and for Pickens' detractors, an opportunity for schadenfreude. After all, Pickens reportedly spent nearly $60 million last fall just advertising how awesome his plan was.

By Ucilia Wang

Back in March, Ascent Solar (ASTI) announced that it had begun regular production of its copper-indium-gallium-selenide panels on a 1.5-megawatt pilot line.

There's a lot of hubbub surrounding H.R. 2454, otherwise known as the "cap and trade" program. Personally, I think most of the criticism against cap and trade misses the mark. Few people have talked about the fact that cap and trade programs require inter-country cooperation to be effective, but enforcement mechanisms have not been clearly defined or tested. What will the U.S. do, for example, if China "cheats" on carbon emissions? China, after all, uses mostly coal for its energy needs. Perhaps we'll have some version of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but for carbon checks. I suspect any heavy-handed enforcement will strain relations between countries, but a heavy hand is exactly what is necessary to convince everyone to play by the rules.

In any case, I jumped into commodities earlier this week (a few days too early), and am happy to hold UNG, FCG, WMB, WPZ, GSG, COP, and DBC. If approved, President Obama's cap and trade program will reduce coal and require more natural gas and solar power. Thanks to environmentalists, America may finally be able to reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

I was pretty bummed out yesterday after hearing that T. Boone Pickens would be canceling his 4 GW wind farm project. Not so much because that beautiful 4 GW wind farm won't be built in Sweetwater, TX – but because this little piece of news is likely to serve as an excellent opportunity for renewable energy naysayers to leave a fresh trail of misinformation about the wind energy industry.

It's already plastered all over message boards and blogs.

While browsing Cleantech News, I came across an interesting post on Energy Outlook on the lack of attention hydro power is receiving in the latest of round of policy efforts aimed at greening the U.S.' energy supply and combating climate change.

Besides having been been scuffed at in Waxman-Markey, hydro power has effectively been ignored in the ARRA, receiving a measly $32 million, peanuts in comparison to the $786.5 million awarded to biofuels, the $350 million for geothermal power and the $117.6 million going to solar. Not mention the millions of dollars that will flow into wind power as a result of changes to the PTC allowing project developers to claim a 30% investment tax credit [ITC] instead, and to obtain direct cash grants in lieu of the actual credit.

There is an interesting article in Wednesday’s FT describing BP’s trip “beyond petroleum and back again”. Having staked out the greener high ground of being the multinational oil company most devoutly search for alternative energy solutions, it is now seemingly retrenching, what with close its London office devoted to some such programs, as well as reputedly refocusing internally on petroleum and natural gas investments.

The piece carries many morals. First, it shows that alternative energy remains no cakewalk. Despite the massive capital budget of BP, and despite its vested interest in diversifying beyond fossil fuels, it has struggled to get even a fraction of its revenues from anything other than petroleum and natural gas. Second, the story reminds how difficult it will be for oil incumbents to avoid the Lorax trap of ever-enhancing extraction technology, thus making the eventual depletion curve for resources sharper and more calamitous.

General Electric (GE) and Best Buy (BBY) were both viewed as the apple of investors’ eyes until the last few years. GE had a rock solid reputation for producing steady profits and dividends that were almost too good to believe, in the Bernard Madoff sense. Of course it’s unfair to call GE a Ponzi scheme, but the consistency of the company’s performance should have caused concern. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Best Buy grew like a rocket along with the housing and CD music booms.

Now GE’s appliance and lighting businesses have weakened with the housing bust, and financial services has become addicted to government guarantees to sell debt. The Wall Street Journal’s “Unable to Unload Limping Divisions, GE Invests in Propping Them Up” reports that GE has to renew investments to protect the survival of these consumer businesses it could not sell.

By Jeff St. John

T. Boone Pickens has officially downsized his Texas-sized wind power plans.

If you are working at Ford (F), it looks like the downturn in auto sales is ending. In June, sales fell only 11 percent over a year ago. Optimism does not permeate all of Detroit; General Motors (GM) sales feel 33 percent for the month; Chrysler, 48 percent. Even Toyota (TM) U.S. sales were down 32 percent June over June last year.

Ford is the only one of the Big Three Detroit auto makers that avoided bankruptcy and a federal bailout.

This is the second performance update on my 10 Clean Energy Stocks for 2009. In the first quarter, the model portfolio was up a tiny 1.6%, but still managed to beat the benchmarks handily (by 8% and 9%), since they were both down significantly.

In the last three months, the market has turned around, logging significant gains, but my ten picks have continued to outperform.

By Bengt Halvorson

Ford, GM, and Chrysler now have a wide range of vehicles that are E85-compatible--meaning they can run on a blend of up to 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline--plus Nissan and Toyota have outfitted some of their largest trucks for it and it's now offered in the 2009 Mercedes-Benz C300.

Toronto-based Brookfield Management Inc. (BAM) has picked up C$565-million in liquidity after selling part of its renewable power business, setting up the global asset manager for significant further acquisitions.

The company announced it will use the capital to look for investment opportunities in the renewable power sector.

Booz, Inc’s strategy + business has an interview with Cambridge University’s David MacKay about his recent book taking a quantitative approach to energy sustainability: “There is more than enough analysis and positing these days about energy costs and policies, the impact of global warming, cap and trade, sustainability, alternative sources, and the like.”

“Fed up with the cacophony, MacKay assembled a rational, non-political, “pro-arithmetic” analysis of what can be done to wean energy users (businesses and individuals) away from fossil fuels by the year 2050 — an ambitious goal he strongly believes is technically feasible. The book, Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air (UIT Cambridge, 2009), is available in bound form or as a free PDF download and is endorsed by such disparate players as Royal Dutch Shell and Friends of Earth. It is rapidly becoming essential reading for anyone serious about crafting reasonable energy policies.”