Ethanol becomes viable when oil is above $60 and corn at $3 a bushel. But it is difficult to find a developed company to invest in -- most either have too much debt or are over-reliant upon ethanol.

Conventional oil in the Middle East is the easiest to extract. Oil has to be virtually over $1 for oil companies to explore. The government makes up the rules, there are few environmental groups and the terrain is simple (dessert). Unfortunately, Saudi Aramco is not publicly traded. What could goose the price of oil is if Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries don't want to give away black gold at low prices. Why not just stop pumping and wait for the price to go back up into the $100 range?

There is no sure thing in investing, but oil is darn close. The world produces and uses 84 million barrels a day. Eventually the economy has to get back on track. How long will we be in a recession? Who knows? But some day, one of the major economies is going to get back on track and start using copious amounts of energy.