I get a lot of information...
Some of it are free tips from industry insiders. Some of it from expensive institutional research tools — the same stuff Goldman and Citi analysts have access to.
And while I can't share all my secrets, today I'd like to present some startling (and highly valuable) information that I've steadily been seeing in those high-end reports and from the insiders I talk to.
First and foremost, take a look at this:
The gray bars show U.S. crude oil production, which has been steadily decreasing.
The orange bars show U.S. crude oil imports, which have been steadily increasing.
Right now, we produce about 6,000,000 barrels per day of U.S. oil, but we import about 10,000,000 barrels of it. By 2015, we'll be producing less than 5,000,000 barrels per day and importing over 13,000,000 barrels of it.
Our addiction is getting more serious, and our ability to satiate it more dire.
In an industry so valuable — with so many geopolitical and economic implications — the way we choose to meet our energy demand will make or lose fortunes.
Not coming from oil
Even though the drilling moratorium was lifted yesterday by a federal judge, I believe that action is temporary. An appeal has already been filed, and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will file a new ban this week.
And in addition to ban in the Gulf, most other offshore drilling in the States has come to a standstill.
Exploratory drilling has been suspended off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia. The Governator has withdrawn support for a plan to expand offshore drilling in California. And Florida Governor Charlie Christ is looking for a way to permanently ban drilling off his shores.
With offshore crude accounting for 33% of U.S. oil production, we're going to have to find a replacement — and fast.
Since total production has been falling for years, you can bet the replacement won't be more onshore oil.
Increasingly, it looks like the answer's going to be natural gas.
Welcome to Gasland
A brief from an energy consultancy I subscribe to said this week that the United States will “increase its natural gas consumption to overcome the decrease in crude supplies.”
We're already seeing this play out in Congress, and the country's wealthiest investors are already placing bets on the future of natural gas.
I recently told you that utilities are already switching to natural gas for baseload generation because of the pressures being place on coal. Now, political officials, security experts, and billionaires are pushing for nat gas to be used as an oil substitute as well.
In a recent essay, billionaire T. Boone has this to say about our increasing natural gas reserve figures:
This incredible surge in total gas resources will completely reshape the international energy landscape. Domestic natural gas is going to be so plentiful and so cheap that liquefied natural gas carriers from Qatar and the Middle East will stop coming to the U.S. They'll go to India and China instead. We just won't need them anymore.
He's on the board of directors of and has a large investment in Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ: CLNE), a company that builds natural gas fueling stations.
Nancy Pelosi's husband has bought the stock as well. And you should, too.
Because the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions (NATGAS) Act is already moving through Congress. It would, among other things, offer hefty tax credits for the purchase of natural gas vehicles and require 50% of U.S. government vehicles to run on natural gas.
Even former CIA Director James Woolsey is pushing this approach, saying in a recent op-ed that:
We have well over a 200-year supply of natural gas according to current estimates. We have enough to do everything, and we're going to look like fools if we don't use it in transportation.
The Congress should adopt legislation that significantly enhances the use of domestic natural gas as a transportation fuel for heavy duty trucks and fleet such as that which is contained in H.R. 1835, the NATGAS Act.
The Center for American Progress echoed that sentiment in their own report.
As I said, the way we choose to meet our immense fossil fuel demand will make or lose fortunes. And as you can see, America's powerful and wealthy are already pushing a certain approach, and lining up to line their pockets in the process.
Here's what you need to do to profit:
First, buy the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG) as a long-term investment.
Second, buy Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) and follow T. Boone and Pelosi for the best investments.
Third, read our new report on the future of fuel, and learn about another natural gas investment being backed by billionaires that could hand you several times your money as this transition plays out.
Call it like you see it,
Nick
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