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so there was this email that was going around... and around... and around. have you heard of this happening? i think they call them "frontsides." oh, oh no wait... FORWARDs, that's it.

there's one that just arrived in my box concerning boycotting gas stations whose petrol originates in Saudi Arabia. it has three main objectives:

1) to provide a list of gas stations to avoid (ones that sell evil gas refined from evil crude oil that was ripped from our loving mother earth by those evil Saudis).

2) to provide a list of gas stations to patronize (ones that sell happy gas refined from patriotic crude oil that was saved from the awful ground by god-fearing democracies (and it smells like fruit punch!)).

3) to coax you into forwarding this email to 30 of your friends (noting how far the boycott message could spread if those 30 people each contacted 30 people, and so on and whatzit).

i always hate to be the asshole who sends out the skeptic's reply to the forwarded email, but there are some basic misrepresentations in this forward. i was in the middle of researching some of the "safe" oil companies, when i decided to check out Snopes to see if they had already done all the work for me.

luckily, Snopes.com has taken care of covering a lot of the stretched truths in this. but beyond that, they tack on a terse explanation of some basic economic principles that come into play. simply put: if we all tried to buy oil from a few companies, those companies would end up HAVING to import oil from OPEC countries in order to keep up with demand. so, you would eventually force companies to support the middle eastern countries you are trying to reject.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/saudigas.asp

despite all this, i definitely agree with the sentiment of the message. i think putting your money where your mouth is proves to be one of the most prolific weapons in a controlled free market. the problem here is that the execution is a little flawed, because boycotting does nothing to change the demand side, which is the real problem....

BUUUT, one thing you can do is research some alternative energy companies you think are working towards the ultimate goal of getting the nation, and eventually the planet, off fossil fuel dependence. then when you find some public ones, open up an E*Trade account and buy some stock in them. "Go long" on these companies, as they say.

Here's a few to keep your eye on (NB: these are not stock recommendations. these are just examples.)

Electro Energy (EEEI) Ener1, Inc (HEV)

Evergreen Solar (ESLR)

Americas Wind Energy Corporation (AWNE)

or, if you want something a little less risky, how 'bout one of the many "Green Funds" that are popping up? 

Winslow Green (WGGIX) (WGGFX) (WGSLX)

Green Century (GCBLX) (GCEQX)

 

or tons of others.

are you going to lose some money? maybe, but you should invest wisely, do your research, and find some companies that have a solid mandate, maybe a few contracts in hand, and a foreseeable future. as always, get a hold of someone who knows about investing before throwing your money in.

it may sound stupid, but take one of the points in the email: if this idea reached 30 people who each pass it on to 30 people and so on and so on, it wouldn't be too long before it could reach a few million people.

so, let's say 3 million people decide to invest $100 into green energy stocks and funds. that's $300 million! let's say a third of those people put $1,000 into green energy stocks and funds. that's over $1Billion (if the other 2 million people hop in with their spare change (this does not account for brokers fees, shma na na...)). etc, etc, etc.

there are probably more people out there trading on the volatility of green energy stocks right now than on growth. so, why not try to change that? then maybe these companies wouldn't have to float bonds, or shop themselves to big oil firms as a PR game, or so many of the things they need to do to improve their liquidity.

and guess what happens when you and 3 million of your friends decide to invest in green energy stocks: a lot of them will go up (because besides options trading, a solid quarter in the black, and inflation, demand increases prices as well). then what will happen? the hot ones come up on bloomberg, and in WSJ, and FT, and all the periodicals that all the people with boatloads of cash read. and then some of the fatcats hop in, because they think it's finally a market that could see sustained growth and have respectable margins in their lifetime. and so on and so forth....

it's worth a shot, isn't it?