The Carnage in the Energy Sector Will Make Savvy Investors Rich
Andy Snyder|August 30, 2022
Cheap and abundant energy is what made the United States a global force.
Now… that’s changing.
The price of energy is soaring, and America’s dominance is being threatened like never before.
For investors, the next step is clear.
You see, dear friend, we recently went on a bit of a trip for you. We spent some time in northern Europe earlier this month. It’s ground zero for the world’s self-made energy crisis.
What’s happening there – green zealousness with an overload of political idiocy – is coming to America.
We took a few snapshots to set the scene.
The first is from the key Swedish port of Visby. It sits on an island Russia has wanted for generations. It hasn’t gotten it yet… but it has gotten its energy.
In 2008, we took the stage in Las Vegas. We told a ballroom of folks about the vast reserves of natural gas that lie beneath Europe’s ancient soil.
It’s nearly as much gas as we have in the States, we said. But the Europeans won’t frack.
The picture above shows a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker (likely with fuel from the United States) docked off the coast of the island. In the foreground, a government-owned ferry is burning the expensive and in-demand fuel… a leftover subsidy from when imported gas was cheap and abundant.
You can see the “Powered by LNG” label directly below the bridge of the ship – clearly the result of a bureaucrat’s marketing campaign.
It’s a farce.
As anybody paying Sweden’s soaring electric bills will tell you, what little gas Europe can get its hands on should go to making electricity and cheap heat.
It shouldn’t be burned by the government in its virtue-signaling campaigns.
Not Done Yet
In Poland, we saw much the same sight.
But there, it is an even older source of fuel that’s found a panicked demand.
Four million of the country’s homes burn coal for heat. With natural gas prices soaring, it’s a bit of a blessing these days. Coal is cheaper. But in a world that’s come to hate the stuff, it’s hard to find.
In eastern Poland, folks sit in dayslong lines in hopes of getting a few pounds of coal from local mines. They sleep in their cars in hopes of securing enough energy to keep them warm through the winter.
Poland’s got plenty of coal. But it’s been far more politically expedient over the past few years to just import heaps of it from Russia.
That’s changed.
A suddenly shifted map of friends and enemies brings the decisions of the last two decades into a fresh light.
The premature push to green energy is looking like it may have created more problems than it solved… a familiar scenario in our locked-down and well-vaccinated world.
One Polish energy expert says as much as 60% of its citizens who rely on coal will experience energy poverty this year.
A bit of global warming would be the best of news for Europe this winter.
Things are going to get cold… and expensive.
Coming to America
We haven’t been hit by the effects of all this in the United States too much… at least not on a wide scale.
But it’s coming… to Texas and California… and then the heartland.
Hawaii, for example, recently accepted its last-ever load of coal. It’s abandoning the stuff in the name of green energy.
The problem is… its solar and wind output is nowhere near ready to fill the void.
The island state has been forced to run dirty, diesel-burning generators to make up the difference. Electricity prices, as you can imagine, have soared.
And California just made a move to outlaw the sale of new cars with gas or diesel engines. It’s an immense gamble that technology will fill the huge gaps created by a law that is generations ahead of the free market.
If Europe – and really, the rest of the world – is any example… trouble is on the way.
The cheap energy that made America a global dominator is at risk of disappearing – all because of the politically motivated choices we’re making today.
For investors, the opportunity is clear.
The energy sector is in play like never before. Once the home of “set it and forget it” strategies, energy has quickly become the profitable playground of fast-moving traders.
Long one of the industries best known for creating wealth (from Rockefeller to Musk), the sector is ready to make another generation of savvy investors rich.
Watch it closely.
The ripples from this carnage are spreading quickly… creating opportunity with each new headline.
We’ll keep tracking it…
It’s a fascinating tale.
