PTA's . . . Pollution . . . Profits!

I remember when my folks used to attend PTA meetings back in middle school. They’d come home, all up in arms about a dress code violation or kids smoking in the bathroom.

But today it’s a bit different. Rampant drug abuse . . . teenage pregnancy . . . school violence. The issues facing parents today are much more exhausting than 20 or 30 years ago. And to make matters worse, there’s another threat you can add to that list today . . .

The big yellow bus!

Every year, 440,000 school busses exacerbate health and environmental problems with their diesel-burning engines. They spit out 3,000 tons of toxic soot, 95,000 tons of smog-producing pollutants and 11 million tons of global warming gases annually.

The small particles that make up these pollutants root themselves deep in the lung tissue and have been linked to asthma, lung cancer and cardiac disease.

And children are especially at risk.

It’s not just because they have direct contact with these poisons on a daily basis and spend more time outside than adults. It’s because their lungs are still in the process of developing and they breathe deeper and more heavily than an average adult.

This, my friends, is the kind of stuff they’re talking about at PTA meetings nowadays. And local politicians are paying attention. They have to. At least if they want to get re-elected!

In 2002, a think-tank of top Yale researchers concluded that children riding buses were exposed to between five and 15 times more particles than an average person.

In ’03, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) found that two hours each day on a school bus from kindergarten through high school increases the risk of cancer by five percent.

As a result of these nasty numbers, Senator Robert Menendez, Senator Evan Bayh, Representatives Sherwood Boehlert and Mark Udall introduced the Clean School Bus Bill.

This bill allocates $750,000 to the EPA for research and $55 million a year for the next two fiscal years to help schools replace their old busses.

The only question is . . . where are they going to find these busses? And realistically, how many will $55 million buy?

In Vail, Colorado, the city just purchased 10 hybrid busses at a cost of $508,300 a pop. That’s approximately $200,000 more than a conventional diesel bus.

At that price, it’s going to be quite a stretch for the EPA to replace 440,000 antiquated school busses.

Fortunately, there are a few hybrid bus manufacturers now competing for the top spot as the lowest cost producer of clean, hybrid school busses.

Some can even pump these things out for less than $200,000 a pop. And that’s opening up a tremendous opportunity for investors.

In January I’ll be offering you a free report highlighting two companies that I believe will be able to deliver hybrid-electric school busses at a competitive cost. And when I say competitive, I’m talking about competitive with conventional diesel busses.

That’s right. I’ve found two companies that can actually produce these things for the same price as those big yellow diesel guzzlers.

And if you think politicians and school districts are salivating over these things, wait until you see how the market reacts in 2007—when they finally hit the streets!

Yes, my friends. These things are going to make us a lot of money.

So stay tuned . . .

- Field Palmer