Think of this as Volume 17, Number 38 of the newsletter I have written weekly since March, 1997. Enjoy.
Even Noubar Afeyan, the MIT professor
and entrepreneur I interviewed this week, does not believe it's
possible.
The idea of an energy glut is so fantastic, so far outside normal business experience, as to be inconceivable, he told me. Especially given the millions now entering the global middle class in India, in Africa, and in Latin America. Of course they'll want TVs and cars and the other trappings of American life. They will compete financially to get them. And that will keep energy prices high for at least a decade.
But the U.S. is already in an energy glut. Natural gas prices here remain stubbornly below $4/mcf. The “spread” between U.S. oil prices and global prices narrowed to a few dollars recently, but has since expanded again. And E85 ethanol (which actually contains just 15% alcohol) is priced at nearly 50 cents/gallon below the price of regular gasoline.
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