4 Ways to Profit From Pickens's Plan

Blogger Tom Konrad, who writes about renewable energy, shares his strategies on how to profit from T. Boone Pickens's plan for reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil, which includes building wind farms and transmission lines connecting these sites to power plants, as well as redirecting natural gas to replace imported gasoline and diesel. Here are Konrad's suggestions for profiting from the plan:

1. Invest in wind farms, including the makers of wind turbines and other wind-related stocks. These green investments include the source of Pickens's turbines, GE (symbol GE), Zoltek (ZOLT), which makes carbon fiber used in turbine blades, and two wind exchange-traded funds (First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy and PowerShares Global Wind Energy; tickers FAN and PWND, respectively).

2.Transmission investments, which include makers of high-voltage lines such as ABB Group (ABB) and Siemens (SI), and utilities involved in transmission, such as ITC Group (ITC), National Grid (NGG), and Quanta Services (PWR).

3. Natural gas plays, such as Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE), which operates fueling stations for natural gas fleets. Konrad points out that Pickens owns nearly 40 percent of the company, serves on the board, and founded the predecessor company in 1997.

4. Real estate in rural towns that occupy windy areas, such as the Great Plains. A way to play that trend, Konrad says, is with the midwestern ETF Investors Real Estate Trust (IRET).

For more on Pickens and his plan, listen to his pitch here, and check out this feature in the latest issue of Texas Monthly .

While you're at it, subscribe to New Money's RSS feed here.