To: westpacific who wrote (87 ) 6/4/2001 8:49:21 PM From: craig crawford Read Replies (1) | Respond to Charging Aheadworth.com But so is the U.S.'s obsession with technology, capped by the Internet boom (and subsequent bust). Investment capital that could otherwise have funded energy infrastructure projects such as refineries, pipelines, and tankers was instead chasing big returns in the high-tech sector. "The tech bubble actually damaged the real economy," says Richard Bernstein, senior quantitative analyst at Merrill Lynch. "And the areas that were damaged the most were the energy and power sectors." Invesco's Segner agrees. "This country hasn't done any capital investment [in energy] for 15 or 20 years," he says. Technology plays another key role in bolstering the long-term prospects of the energy sector. In the information age, companies can be crippled if their networks go down — Amazon.com, for example, stands to lose millions of dollars if customers cannot access its Web site. So firms are increasingly in need of higher-quality power sources. That's why operations like server farms and Web hosting facilities are supplementing or replacing power from the traditional grid with other primary sources that ensure a consistent energy supply (an important issue in California these days). The major beneficiaries of the new energy landscape are likely to be those companies whose business is getting at and delivering oil, natural gas, and even coal.
