MOsanthrope

Posted by Chris on January 30, 2006 at 10:00 am.

I can’t put my finger on it, but I know there’s a common thread running through the articles currently appearing on Fortune Magazine’s web site:

Ready for $262/barrel oil?

Two of the world’s most successful investors say oil will be in short supply in the coming months.

DAVOS, Switzerland (FORTUNE) - Be afraid. Be very afraid.

That’s the message from two of the world’s most successful investors on the topic of high oil prices. One of them, Hermitage Capital’s Bill Browder, has outlined six scenarios that could take oil up to a downright terrifying $262 a barrel.

Detroit’s endless winter

More bad news is on the way for Ford and General Motors, and they are running out of time for a turnaround.

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - When Super Bowl XL kicks off this Sunday in Detroit, it should provide some much-needed diversion for the hometown Big Two. January already ranks as one of the cruelest months ever for General Motors and Ford and more bad news is on the way.

How to Beat the High Cost of Gasoline. Forever!

Stop dreaming about hydrogen. Ethanol is the answer to the energy dilemma. It’s clean and green and runs in today’s cars. And in a generation, it could replace gas.

(FORTUNE Magazine) - You probably don’t know it, but the answer to America’s gasoline addiction could be under the hood of your car. More than five million Tauruses, Explorers, Stratuses, Suburbans, and other vehicles are already equipped with engines that can run on an energy source that costs less than gasoline, produces almost none of the emissions that cause global warming, and comes from the Midwest, not the Middle East…. [T]he reason motorists don’t know about the five-million-plus ethanol-ready cars and trucks on the road is that until now Detroit never felt the need to tell them. Automakers quietly added the flex-fuel feature to get a break from fuel-economy standards.

For a moment I thought I had fat-fingered the URL and ended up at Mother Jones or Greenpeace. Look for next month’s feature, “Big Three Auto Executives: Not the Visionaries Previously Thought.”

It’s nice that Fortune is attempting to clue in its subscriber base of Navigator-driving soccer moms and day traders. Too bad it took this long. Welcome to the fringe, Fortune.

Filed under: Business, U.S., Environment