The Next Bull Market: Green Investing

During these historic times of chaos and fear on Wall Street, one market still stands poised to achieve great success: green investing, which includes everything from wind and solar power to forest conservation.  It’s the next ‘bull market’, and it’s got a lot of promise for investors looking to pick up the pieces of their financial futures.

From The Nation:

Since 2001, the wind industry has grown 339 percent; the solar industry has grown a whopping 579 percent; both are projected to continue their blockbuster double-digit annual growth into the foreseeable future. In contrast, the Dow Jones average has climbed just 2 percent during the same period, and is only barely hanging on at those levels because of the artificial boost produced by talk of the bailout.

A recent report by the Center for American Progress estimates that investing just $100 billion in the green economy (one-seventh the amount contemplated in the administration’s proposed Wall Street bailout) would create 2 million new jobs, with a significant percentage of those coming in the struggling manufacturing and construction sectors. In contrast, investing that much money in the financial services sector would generate just 1.1 million jobs, according to an analysis conducted by the study’s authors, Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier of the University of Massachusetts. In other words, Wall Street’s offering about half the jobs for the same money: hardly a smart bet for the taxpayer.

The Nation explains how a green investment on the level of the Wall Street bailout could create growth on a massive scale, almost entirely eliminating unemployment and significantly raising middle-class incomes. We’d be pushing forth on the transition to clean energy at a pace that would eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels at a much faster rate than could occur otherwise. It would also provide funding for a new green tech revolution, allowing ideas like skyscraper farms to become reality.  Check it out at The Nation’s website.

It’s true – think of how much we could accomplish by diverting just a fraction of the massive Wall Street bailout to green tech instead of rescuing firms that have made their mistakes.  Of course, that’s not going to happen, but green investing is certainly radiating promise during such uncertain times.

Link [The Nation]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Green Vaporwear, Hucksterism, and Electric Cars- Wired Magazine Unloads on Zap!

Holy crap did Wired Magazine just unload on electric car company Zap!. It sounds like the company is run by a couple of shady hucksters who have enriched themselves at the expense of their customers, employees, and franchisees while screwing things up for all the real green car companies with their constant over promising and under delivering.

Here’s an snip, head over and read the whole article which Wired was kind enough to post in full to their site.

Over the years, ZAP has taken millions from investors and dealers eager to see the company’s line of green cars hit the road. But that line has never materialized. Of nearly a dozen groundbreaking eco-vehicles ZAP has promised in public announcements and on its Web site, only the Xebra and its sibling, a truck version, have ever made it to market. As a result, fans of electric cars have grown disillusioned, while individuals like Youssef have been financially devastated. What’s more, investment firms around the country have become cautious about financing electric vehicles after being repeatedly misled by one of the industry’s most visible companies.

In spite of all this, the pair now running the company, Starr and CEO Steve Schneider, enjoy lucrative employment packages that have made them millions. Their compensation — and ZAP’s continued existence as a business — heavily depends on the continual issuance of new stock shares. And although ZAP has earned an annual profit only once in its 16 years of existence (even that was the result of a one-time debt conversion) and its stock has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and the Pacific Stock Exchange, Starr and Schneider have managed to keep ZAP shares from becoming worthless. They’ve achieved this almost entirely through a relentless flow of press releases in which ZAP describes itself as “a world leader in electric transportation” and constantly claims to be on the verge of innovations and business deals that will yield breakthroughs in green transportation — claims that consistently fall short.

None of this would be possible without the optimism and naïveté of those eager to put their faith in the electric car future. When it comes to green technology, some people just want to believe. It’s easy to see why: Electric cars, after all, don’t run on gas, so they produce virtually no emissions. They do consume some fossil fuels, since they charge their batteries from the grid, which mostly uses coal and natural gas to generate power. But because electric cars are more efficient than gas cars at turning energy into miles, their carbon footprint averages out to be 50 to 90 percent less than that of traditional vehicles. (And that figure drops to nearly zero if the car is plugged into a renewable energy source like a solar panel array.) Electric cars could decrease dependence on oil, reduce global carbon emissions, and save consumers money. But while Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and General Motors all toyed with electric vehicles in the ’90s, these companies had effectively ended development by 2003, when California stopped requiring automakers to offer zero-emissions vehicles. Since then, electric car enthusiasts have been forced to pin their hopes on small independent companies — like ZAP.

“They tug at your heartstrings,” says Joseph Gottlieb, a ZAP dealer from the San Diego area who has filed an official complaint against ZAP with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “If ZAP was in any other business, the company would have been dead long ago. But they keep taking advantage of how much environmentalists — like me — want to see electric cars come to market.”

The lesson to be learned here: Greenies are easy to rip off if you tell them you’re trying to save the world.

Link [Wired] via [EcoGeek]

The Oracle of Omaha Loves Him Some Railroad Stocks

Get this- railroads are hot again. CNN Money reports that Warren Buffett has been quietly buying up stock in railroad companies.- he got 18% of Burlington Northern Santa Fe in January. Railroads were deregulated in 1980 and the industry has been on an efficiency boosting tear since then. Productivity has more than doubled since 1990 and technological advancements have pushed fuel efficiency by more than 80% since 1980.

Railroads are a lot more efficient than trucks, emitting 65% less emissions than trucks alone on trips over 1,000 miles. Expanding capacity on the rail network is not easy and demand is rising so the railroads are able to raise prices. Railroad stocks have mostly been immune to the softening in the market and after word of Buffett’s buy got out the companies he bought into all saw boosted stock prices.

It’s good (for your bank account) to be green(er).

Link [CNN Money]