Misc

Marc Gunther How’s GE’s ecomagination  going? I put that question today to Mark Vachon, who is vice president for ecomagination at General Electric (GE). He replied by talking about natural gas. “The large macro trend of gas is massive,” he said. “Our oil and gas business will be a huge beneficiary.” An abundance of shale gas in the U.S., and methane gas reserves in Australia present a wealth of opportunities for GE, which plays all along the supply chain for natural gas. “We’re a massive player in gas exploration,” Mark said. “We have a water business that can deal...

I wanted to extend my thanks to all of the people that want me to keep this website alive. I have been reviewing many of the comments and plan to incorporate many of these changes very soon. My plan is to have a re-launch of the website with all of the changes by September 1st. My goal is to become more focused on investment ideas, rather than just a press release news source. I think many of you will be very happy with the final results. Thanks for your patience. Mark p.s. The call...

by Debra Fiakas CFA In a game of word association many investors might respond Veolia Environmental SA (VIE:  P or VEOEY:  OTC/PK) at the mention ‘water reclamation.’  General Electric (GE:  NYSE) and Siemens (SIE:  DE or SIEGY: OTC/PK) might be next choices.  These three companies have been ‘go to’ sources for water treatment by municipalities and industry. Indeed, it may take a behemoth to address water issues.  In January 2015, the World Economic Forum declared water as the number one crisis impacting the world, recognizing the dire circumstances of water supplies.  Over 660 million people  -  one...

Saj Karsan EnviroStar (EVI) is a distributor of laundry equipment that has developed a proprietary dry-wet-cleaning machine that avoids the use of perchloroethylene (Perc), a harmful chemical that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has deemed a carcinogen. Perc is also classified as a hazardous air contaminant by the US Environment Protection Agency, and its use will become illegal in the state of California in the year 2023. EnviroStar's patented Green-Jet process uses an environmentally-friendly, water-based solution that is both non-toxic and requires less energy consumption than traditional dry-cleaning methods. This is currently a tiny company, with...

This has nothing to do with energy efficiency or anything else pertaining to this website. But while doing some additional research on LED's this morning I stumbled onto this amazing use of LED technology. These are manufactured by Generate and they have several LED based products for the home. (Thanks to Strange New Products)

By Jeff Siegel The million-dollar manicured lawns of Montecito, CA have withered, died, and gone to seed. The polo fields are little more than dust now, and many have traded the good china for paper plates so as to avoid using the dishwasher. There’s no doubt about it  Mother Nature doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, black or white, fat or skinny. When she lays the smack down, we all feel it. And there is no better example of this than the debilitating drought that’s wringing the Golden State dry. Of course, for those who can afford...

American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC) received an order for a D-VAR® voltage regulation system from Econnect Construction, a U.K. company specializing in grid connection for renewable energy sources. The D-VAR system will be installed in Scotland where it will provide voltage support and power factor regulation in a mixed hybrid solution designed by Econnect Construction for a 35 megawatt (MW) wind farm. AMSC expects to commission the D-VAR system in October 2006.

It may sound like weird science, but small tech power is being pursued in some unusual places, including your liquor cabinet and toilet. What’s more, if you thought cold fusion was so 80s, it – and a new variant called sonofusion – has bubbled back into the news.

As you can see the site is starting to show some of the changes I have planned. First off, there is a slight redesign of the website to take advantage of some new features available from the newest release of MovableType. If you currently run a blog with MT I highly recommend the upgrade. If you want to get into the world of blogging, feel free to drop me a line and I can give you some links/advice. I have updated the stocks list and refreshed some of the listings. You may also notice that there is...

by Debra Fiakas CFA The dire condition of drinking water systems in the U.S. has been made glaringly apparent with the recent debacle in Flint, Michigan that has left numerous citizens in the community suffering from chronic health conditions as a result of contaminated water.  We had no further than our own coverage group to find a company that could help solve problems the drinking water system.  Mueller Water Products (MWA:  NYSE) is a supplier of water meters, pipe fittings, valves, pipe repair components, and fire hydrants.  Mueller’s Echologics leak detection solution gives water utilities details on water...

Fiakas Water Utilities Keeping The Flow In Cash Flow by Debra Fiakas CFA After a long series of posts on suppliers of water infrastructure, from fire hydrants to filters and from taps to treatments, it is now time to look at the companies selling water.  The majority of water utilities is owned by municipalities and is beyond the reach of investors.  However, there is a clutch of publicly traded companies that peddle water as a business. Which water utilities make sense to return hungry and risk wary investors? A short...

If you are seeing this post, that means this website has been successfully moved over to the new server. As you may (or may not know) I run a hosting business on the side. This website is more of a hobby for me. This is in addition to my REAL fulltime job. One positive about maintaining this website is it has brought me more clients for my hosting business. I recently added a new client that is now getting some decent traffic. So I purchased some servers and I'm in the process of relocating all my...

For this post, a tad bit of shameless promotion for a friend. My former grad school roommate and good friend Brad Parks, who works at the Millennium Challenge Corporation in DC, co-authored a book on the asymmetry that exists between emerging countries' share of global greenhouse gas emissions and the price those countries will have to pay, not only monetarily but also in terms of health and quality of life, as the effects of climate change materialize. Brad put a tremendous amount of work into this and the few chapters that I had a chance to read...

At my real job, a group of us have a yearly stock picking contest. Some years I have performed well, others have been terrible (last year my total performance for my picks was a miserable -13%.) The winner of 2004 was up over 50%. Her method, spread out the newspaper, take 3 M&M candies and throw them up in the air. She picked the 3 stocks the candies landed on. The rules of our little contest are simple. Pick three stocks that trade for over $5. We buy at the close on the first trading day of the...

This Thursday, PowerShares Capital Management LLC, will introduce a new exchange traded fund (ETF) based on the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, the first index comprised of companies focused on developing renewable sources of energy, clean energy technologies and environmentally-friendly technologies within the energy sector. The "PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio" (PBW) will begin trading on the American Stock Exchange March 3, 2005 and will replicate the WilderHill Clean Energy Index.