Renewable Energy

Wall Street 2 was a pretty cheesy movie, and poorly edited in many places, and somewhat drawn out, but I still enjoyed it. I do remember Mr. Gekko saying, however, that alternative energy was "the next bubble." There's probably a lot of truth to that. When people pour money into sectors that they have little to no knowledge of (think condo investing in Florida and margin stock investing before the depression), you have a bubble, my friend.


Here are the points I have to support this thinking.:

-Personal experience: I concentrated in Environmental Engineering in college, and saw interest in sustainability shoot through the roof. Even among people who didn't know what they were talking about. But I didn't really either; I had no idea ethanol was a terrible fuel until I took an independent study seminar devoted to the subject.

-Google launched a "PowerMeter" service providing free software in order to encourage conservation. Failed. Microsoft had a similar service called "Hohm." Failed.

-Meanwhile, Google now pours $280 million into rooftop solar panels. Granted, prices on panels have come down and performance has improved, but we are nowhere near widespread feasibility yet. This may be a good investment for them, but most likely not.

-New York is considering a proposal that would classify gravity as a renewable resource so that traction elevators could tap into tax credits.

-Congress is pushing renewable energy portfolio standards and also solar incentives. This had led to a years-long boom in solar stocks.

Just an idea for now. Any comments?

Fun Facts about Afgahnistan

Per Capita GDP = America's Per Capita GDP / 50

09% of economic activity tied to US military or international aid.

Biggest export: opium

Biggest import: weapons

50% of population < 15 years old.

75% of adults can't read or write.

3 major languages, 30 minor ones.

 

Source: http://blogs.forbes.com/beltway/2011/06/23/the-real-reason-were-leaving-afghanistan/, who got it from the CIA factbook.

But, there is about $1 trillion worth of ore.

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Sewage doesn't run uphill

I started this blog because so few people can really understand why I like working in energy. One time while driving down I-95 in Philadelphia my friend looked out at a vast, rusty oil refinery in all its glory and said "I don't know, Manny, I just wouldn't want to be around this all day." To which I replied (alluding to his future profession as a doctor), "well, maybe some people wouldn't want to be around death, disease, and hospital food all day." I usually never have good quips on the spot, so I was proud of this one.

My point is, there are a number of ways to look at any situation or experience, and working with oil and gas is no different. Through these posts I'll be chronicling my life from the inside, as an aspiring engineer and MBA student in Houston - USA's energy capital. I hope to explain things along the way for those that want to learn, and all the while provide some hope and humor for everyone stuck in the daily grind. After all, as a colleague told me, "we're all working downstream of something...and sewage doesn't run uphill."