Breadnight

Nacco Industries - Worth Another Look

Forgive me for not doing my own research on this, but what percent of NC revenues are from their mining divisions??

Nacco Industries - Worth Another Look

The North American Coal Subsidiary of NACCO Ind. has dragline operations in Florida. Apparently, this operation has draglines sitting idle at the moment due to the local economic downturn in the region. This was a cash cow in the past, and cannot be counted on in the present and near future.

Anyone know anything more about this, or what percent historical revenues were derived from these operations please let us know.

Super Tankers and Super Volatile Oil Prices

BTW, keep up the good work Reggie, even when I do not agree with you I enjoy the research based analysis.

Super Tankers and Super Volatile Oil Prices

Paultaut: I am sure Petrobras will utilize a pipeline to transfer it's petroleum production the 300 miles to shore.

I believe Reggie's summation, which we hinted at, would be to sell into the strength in these shipping companies. Their business models did not include this storage aspect a year ago. It is a plus to them in the short term, but indicates how weak their core business model is currently performing.

If you believe crude prices will continue to collapse (which I do), shorting these crude transporters is a good high beta play. I would recommend a strategy of shorting the shippers that couldn't make money during the boom times, those will be the ones to go under in the future.

The catch: is the recent strength in the shipping co's due to the storage issues due to crude contango, or is it value investors picking the bottom? Why has DRYS seen recent (huge) strength, they don't have crude vessels (that's not a fact, but I'm moderately sure of it)??

-if you're shorting an equity b/c of a flawed fundamental factor, you should make sure the recent strength is due to that factor. In this case I am not sure that is true... Your thoughts??

How You Can Invest in the Pickens Plan

Pickens' plan to use nat gas to power automobiles is audacious to say the least!! The supply of nat gas is and has always been very tight, and once people begin using them for everyday transportation use, the price of nat gas will skyrocket. Just ask all the nat gas fired power plants who came online in the 90's... Once they began using nat gas, they generated too much demand themselves.

Most of the nat gas power generators in the US today are operating at a loss due to their own demand for the fuel.

If the Pickens plan were to initialize, the best way to invest in it would be nat gas producers like CHK, DVN, UPL, ect...

A New Global Market for Natural Gas

Once you start using natural gas for transportation, the price will jump so high that no one will use it. Same thing happened in the 90's to the natural gas fired power plants. They began using so much nat gas that they became the market and the prices shot up past what they used in their economic analysis, they ran at a loss for years!! (maybe still do) -very dumb. Keep this in mind.

U.S. Future in Coal Burns Bright

Some of you are way off in thinking that US coal producers will be exporting to China. The increased demand in China will come from Australia and (decreasingly) Indonesia. I can only think of 1 US listed pure play coal producer that has assets in Australia -Peabody (BTU).

The increased demand from China, in my opinion, will not influence US coal supplies/inventories. The two markets are independent enough, I think to have much affect on each other.

When thinking about the China demand (which is/will be huge) you must ask yourself "what type of coal fired boilers are bing built in China today?" Each boiler is built to a specific coal type, quality, moisture, and sulphur content...

Once you find out what coal specs the Chinese boilers are being built for, you can figure out what coal regions will benefit.

BTW, I have made huge coin on JRCC puts, stay away from that one, and any other coal producer that is not making money currently.

Someone needs to help me with the Chinese coal fired power plants/boiler research... any takers??

First Solar Spreads Some Sunshine

I'm waiting on this one to break-down. I agree with Mr Clark on this one, and once it does break down.. .watch out below.

Tell me please how solar is better than wind turbines?? I think both are flawed. The real winner in China is coal. They are building approx 1 coal fired power plant per day!! In the next 3 years they will have added the coal fired capacity that exists today in the US -in 5 years time.

The demand for power generation is so great, that peak load producers like wind and solar are out of the question.

Alternative Energy's only hope is that politicians will do anything for a vote -and current popular belief in global warming will keep these in play.

Bear Market Bounce Check-Up; Focus on Solar and Gold

Will, Isn't there a reality show for people like you these days.... how about The Biggest Loser!?!?

Quit whining and crying!!

Solar and Cash: The Big Boys Have an Answer - Do You?

WRONG. You cannot transfer electricity from Australia to California.

Even if they were connected by a magical land bridge, the distances are too far and all of the energy is lost in the transport.

Solar and Cash: The Big Boys Have an Answer - Do You?

It would take a field of solar panels or wind turbines the size of a city, to power a city of the same size.

What happens at night? Or when the wind isn't blowing? You're telling me that you can store the extra energy accumulated during the day to keep our city powered at night?? You're delusional.

Who wants to live in a city that has power outages 50% of the time and is neighbored by a city of solar panels or wind turbines?? Not me, and not your local politician.

These energy sources are used for peak periods. They are not sufficient for base load electricity. Not to mention they make no economic sense as an investment. Just keep that in mind while you play this fad.

Crude Reality: Big Oil's Purposely Restricting Supply

Everyone keeps yelling "the answer to our oil problem is alternative/renewable energies!!"

Someone tell me how a wind turbine spinning in the fields will make my Land Cruiser go? Or, how thousands of solar panels in the desert will provide the energy for me to fly home from Australia in a month?? It won't.

People are confusing the argument. YOU CANNOT REPLACE OIL WITH ALTERNATIVE/RENEWABLE ENERGY (at least not today).

Electric energy is not the same as energy used for transportation. They may both be big issues, but they are unrelated. Please keep this in mind.

3 Investment Ideas for the Rest of 2008 and 2009

Hey slugger. You talk about oil in your alternative energy strategy, but they aren't really related.

You cannot replace oil with wind turbines.
You cannot replace oil with solar panels.

Electric energy is not associated with transportation energy (i.e. planes trains and automobiles).

Massey Energy Posts Big Number But Big Charge Too

Trader Mark is right about coal, it is a 2009 story. Everyone who comments here speaks about oil. I don't see the connection b/w oil and coal. - You cannot replace one with the other (unless you're running a steam locomotive!)

Once oil bottoms, go long coal, and bet the house. What a lot of people are missing however, is that US coal is rarely related to coal demand in China -which is THE story.

If you want to play in the coal sector, pick companies with diverse asset bases in Australia and Indonesia -thats where China will be getting the extra coal.

Once the fundamentals begin to matter again, and hedge funds incorporate a less sporadic strategy, coal will be a big winner.

Profiting from the Pickens Plan: FAN, Clean Fuels, Fuel Systems

You guys keep talking about two different things: energy for electrical consumption and energy for transportation. To date, they are unrelated. You cannot replace crude oil with coal -see the difference??

1) If everyone plugged in their electric cars, we would have to build A LOT more coal or nuclear powered plants. Since nuclear doesn't seem likely (dumb politicians), and coal is our most abundant resource, we will be burning a lot more coal to fuel those green electric cars.

2) Wind energy is hopeless. Do some research. It would take a wind farm the size of a city to power a city of the same size. Additionally, that city would have lots of power outages when the wind isn't blowing -like 50% of the time.

3) Natural Gas for electricity consumption has been proven to be a bad idea. Once you build the nat gas power plants, you end up jacking up the price of the natural gas you're using b/c of the demand YOU created. A lot of these plants that were built in the 90's are losing money today.

4) Nat gas for transportation will have the same affect. Once you increase the demand for the nat gas, the price will skyrocket and no one will use it.

All of these ideas SOUND good, but they simply wont work. Build a lot of nuclear plants, and increase spending on clean coal technologies b/c COAL is what we will be increasingly using in the near future.