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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E_K_S who wrote (46787)	2/28/2012 4:17:46 PM
From: Sergio H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78508

The battery issues pertaining to the electric car will soon be addressed as all of the major auto manufacturers are developing electric vehicles. I see NG being used by companies for local delivery and local routes with these companies providing their own refueling and the public changing from gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles. Infrastucture will be needed to provide charging stations as these cars develop into full usage transportation as opposed to local usage only. Adding to the recent ETF discussion...amazing how deployment of ETF's are so quick to adapt to public interest. finance.yahoo.com <On Wednesday, Feb. 15, Van Eck launched an energy-oriented exchange-traded fund holding companies involved in what Van Eck calls "unconventional" oil and natural gas. Although energy-related ETFs abound,Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF has a unique mandate. The term "unconventional" refers in part to methods of exploration and extraction and as such includes oil sands, oil shales, tight sand, coalbed methane, and shale gas, all of which have become more common in recent years. Because these types of extractions may be geographically extensive or deeply embedded in underground rock formations, they may be difficult to perform without the use of developing technologies. And some of the developing technologies employed by the firms held in FRAK are controversial technologies like hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") and horizontal drilling. Fracking in particular has been opposed by some environmentalists and by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has complained that the process, which involves using pressurized fluids to create or expand cracks in underground rock formations to release oil or natural gas for extraction, can contaminate groundwater with arsenic or copper. Environmentalists also have complained that the process can cause fracking chemicals to rise to the surface. The energy industry has disputed these allegations, and asserts that the fracking process has not polluted wells that provide drinking water. Beyond fracking, the U.S. has unlocked significant domestic oil and gas reserves recently, largely because of the unconventional exploration and extraction methods employed by the kinds of companies held in FRAK. Among the new ETF's top holdings are Occidental Petroleum, Canadian Natural Resources, and EOG Resources. FRAK tracks a Van Eck-managed index of 43 firms. The new ETF charges 0.54%.