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| Profit from the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century (Angel Series) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Brian Hicks, Chris Nelder
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $14.90
You Save: $13.05 (47%)
New (35) Used (7) from $14.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 1728
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 286
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0470127368
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.823
EAN: 9780470127360
ASIN: 0470127368
Publication Date: May 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Praise for Profit from the Peak
"This book is a clearly written, succinct, and well-referenced summary of information about, and related to, what I believe will be the most important issue to strike Western civilization ever: the end of cheap oil. It is clear to me that how we make investments over the next few decades will determine whether we can survive the end of cheap oil and in what fashion. While I am not nearly as optimistic as the authors that there is a supply-side solution to the issues we will face 'post-peak oil,' they certainly have lots of good ideas as to where we might invest in alternatives. This book is a must-have on the shelf of any savvy investor as we face the second half of the age of oil."
-Charles Hall, ESF Foundation Distinguished Professor, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York
"Profit from the Peak will help you develop and maintain financial security as the price of oil soars and our globalized economy gets into trouble. Hicks and Nelder show how you and your community can tackle the long transition of relocalization. Learn about the power of locally generated energy-and benefit from their practical guide to investing in the most efficientand attractive of today's post-petroleum alternatives."
-Julian Darley, founder of the Post Carbon Institute and author of High Noon for Natural Gas
"Brian and Chris deliver the painful yet potentially profitable truth about peak oil. Not theory anymore, but reality. This book is a must if you want a clear path to profits in the age of peak oil."
-Kevin Kerr, Editor of Dow Jones Global Resources Trader and President of Kerr Trading International
"Profit from the Peak shows not only why investment in alternative energy sources is about to skyrocket, but more importantly, where investment is going to pay off the most, by concisely describing the huge variety of upcoming energy sources and their relevant companies."
-Rembrandt Koppelaar, oil analyst, President of ASPO Netherlands
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 worthwhile but has some weaknesses June 24, 2008
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
First of all, as to the reviewer who advised the authors should question the environmental impact of our voracious appetite for energy:
The human race could adopt a simpler life. The only way that can happen is if we have a massive die-off of most of the human population. Also, it would be a society where people die young due to lack of modern-day health care, and so forth.
I believe the assumption the authors have made regarding energy demand are sound. People WANT to live what they perceive to be a better life. Some of the aspects of such a life are: advanced health care, the ability to travel, the ability to have a career involving challenging intellectual pursuits, as opposed to having to devote one's life to doing grunt work in order to put food on one's own table.
I am totally prejudiced on this matter. I believe the amenties of modern society have been of tremendous benefit to me. (frankly, if I had lived in older days, due to my physical frailties, I no doubt would have died long ago).
Now a few people may prefer the simpler life, but the vast majority of the people of the world want the amenities that we in the developed world have. I don't see the people of China saying, "hey, we'd rather spend our lives harvesting rice and living in mud huts".
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OK, so much for the rant, now on to my review.
The book is a good overview of the peak oil situation. For those not familiar with peak oil, it provides a lot of the fundamental facts that those who have studied this issue have discovered.
For example, the fact that once we can no longer run our society on fossil fuels, IF there is a path to a comparable standard of living in the future, the mainstay of our energy use will be in the form of electricity.
There are a couple of beefs I have with the book, though, which led me not to give it 5 stars.
1). It really is essentially a book about peak oil, not investing. Upon reading the book, it seems clear to me that the book is motivated primarily by the desire to expand awareness of the peak oil problem to a broader cross-section of the public, not to provide people investment ideas for how to profit from the transition. And that is all to the good in my view, because I think the former is a much more important goal. So the title strikes me as a bit disingenuous, perhaps trying to snare people out to make a buck on alternative energy and then give them a tutorial on peak oil, with the names of a few companies thrown in in order to justify the title of the book.
In my case both causes interest me. I am retired and I am spending some of my time trying to become knowledgable about peak oil in case I can find a way to do anything constructive to help fix the problem. And, I am also an investor, and focused heavily on commodities.
I tend to be skeptical about investing in new technologies, however, because it seems to me it is very hard to anticipate who the real winners are going to turn out to be, and stocks in hot new areas that seem to hold promise for solving important problems of society (the biggest of which is energy) tend to be bid up to sky high prices and thus are extremely risky. One specific mention was about the oil refiners like Valero who can process heavy sour crude. Well, right now the refiners are in the dumpster due to low crack spreads, so who knows maybe Valero is a good buy right now (I have been on the fence about buying some myself). On the other hand, the oil producing nations are seeking to do more of the downstream processing of oil themselves. I can't remember whether the book mentions this, I think it probably does. The Middle East states have a population explosion and need jobs for their huge population of young people. So they want to build refineries and sell us gasoline instead of oil.
Hence, I think there is no guarantee that US refiners will even have oil to process in the future. When I hear Bush talk about how we need to build more refineries, well it's no more idiotic than most all the other garbage you are hearing from the politicians, but does Bush realize that the oil producing nations are building refineries and want to just sell us finished products like gasoline? (in his defense, I am sure McCain and Obama are equally clueless on that)
Another point, before I forget: The reviewer that said the book was US centric I do agree had a good point. I live in the US and an pretty US centric myself, but I do recall thinking a couple times while reading the book that in some places it focused on the US when it should have been focusing globally.
Now, my last criticism and perhaps biggest: The authors have a definite bias for renewables and against fossil fuels and nuclear.
Now in the long run I totally agree that we need to switch over to renewables because the nonrenewables won't be there any more.
However, the authors express all the pitfalls in terms of cost, timetables, etc. associated with the big existing sources of energy with great zeal, while they speak glowingly about renewables with very little discussion of the huge pitfalls and challenges.
The most obvious example is that they say very little about the fact that since most renewables produce intermittently (when the wind blows, when the sun shines), for us to transition to a future based on renewable energy requires the development of massive energy storage facilities. And I would say that right now even though renewable sources such as large-scale solar generation are not particularly far along in implementation, large-scale energy storage is at a far earlier stage of infancy. So in my view the development of large-scale energy storage is liable to be an even bigger challenge than the development of large-scale renewable energy production facilities.
But all in all, it was nevertheless a very good book. It covers the issues associated with peak oil to a moderate level, so it is perfect for someone new to peak oil to get a solid grounding in most of the important issues, and someone who has already studied the issue somewhat is liable to learn a few new things from the book as I did.
 Peak Oil May 3, 2008
20 out of 24 found this review helpful
According to the authors, the supply of oil is dwindling
rapidly. We must have viable alternatives in the short to
intermediate term. Simultaneously, the supply of oil
is dwindling and global population is soaring to 9 billion
by mid-century. 50% of USA imports of oil are from
Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Ultimately,
true oil could reach $500/ barrel by the author !
How do you fight back? You do so by building autos
that can get 100 MPG amongst other R & D investments.
In addition, the supply of oil will last another 30 years
absent any major oil discoveries. A $20 trillion dollar
investment in R and D is needed to quench the current
industrial thirst for energy. Lastly, 60% of proven oil
reserves are in the Middle East.
There are huge investment opportunities. i.e.
o Suncor Energy is the largest tar sands company.
o Allegro Biodiesel Corporation has expertise in
biodiesel fuels.
o Peerless Manufacturing Company deals in pollution
abatement.
There are a number of viable alternative energy sources. i.e.
o solar energy and power generated in desert environments
o tar sand re-processing
o cleaner burning coal, scrubber technological enhancements...
o nuclear power
o The "Artificial Sun"- a multi-nation fusion project
o wind mill power for farming and rural areas
o hydroelectric power and environmental safeguards of salmon et. al.
The author should have developed some of the above options
in the work. Nonetheless, the book provides a rich source of
information with profound future implications. It is the
"Future Shock" of the energy industry.
Read It Or Weep May 16, 2008
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Profit From The Peak is one of those rare works that not only decodes what is an esoteric and dense subject, but puts forth the information without bias, and without spin.
Personally, I think this volume has within its covers information that can make the reader a fortune. And, Heaven forbid, if things really go off the deep end, it could literally be a life saver.
I've been reading Hicks' work for years now, and can attest to his uncanny ability to take the big picture and distill it into a series of concise, clear and highly profitable steps, time and time again.
Teamed up with Chris Nelder, the duo has really hit this one out of the park. Even a true novice to the concept of Peak Oil can pick up this book and come away with a keen understanding of the core concepts, and a bullet-proof strategy for long-term profit.
For the investor, the principle of Occam's Razor is true here; Go long oil, in all its incarnations. But doing so without understanding exactly how the world got to this point--a total dependence on a finite energy source--would do one a disservice.
There's simply too much at stake, globally and personally, not to be fully up to speed on the concepts and strategies explained so eloquently in Profit From The Peak.
I urge any serious thinker, investor....anyone at all, to read this book as soon as possible. Tomorrow may simply be too late.
Well written, lots of graphs and charts, packed full of facts. April 29, 2008
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book is an exciting read. Starts out with a history of oil and develops into fossil fuel alternatives. The author builds a convincing case that we are on the verge of peak oil production and how we need to prepare with the decline.
Oily crap June 8, 2008
7 out of 35 found this review helpful
What a load of crap, They just found a big oil field off the coast of Brazil 2 fields in fact. 1/3 to 1/2 of the Gulf hasn't been explored.There is according to "Energy and Capital" Special Reports 503 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken Formation stretching from Monatana to N' Dakota another 40 billion barrels on the North Slope of Alaska -maybe more, 175 Trillion barrels thats right TRILLION barrels of oil in Canadian Tar Sands that they can extract a barrel of oil from for about $[...] a barrel-this is reported by Popular Science Apr 2008 issue. 5 Trillion barrels of oil in Oil shale in Colo,Wyo & Utah that they can extract a barrel from from at about $[...] a barrel. There's hundreds million maybe billions of barrels of oil off the coast of Calif and Fla.I could go on and on , but most of you buy into the fear propoganda of Peak Oil a farce that Big Oil & Commodity traders want you to believe to keep making them richer.
My best friend who is retired from Wal Mart and former upper mgt with them has a brother that works on the Gulf oil rigs and he states that he can't count how many excellent producing wells are capped off- I wonder why ?. Beside the earth core keeps producing more oil and oil pools in the Gulf now are refilling up from those deeper deposits seeping upward. All this info is readily available on the webs you just have to search it out apparently these dooms day writers didn't do that.
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