| RG: In the January issue of The Oxford Income Letter, which is our Annual Forecast Issue, you mentioned natural gas as a bright spot in the energy industry. Are you still as bullish on natural gas as you were back in January? ML: Absolutely - and even more so than oil. The U.S. is set to become the largest exporter of natural gas within just a couple of years. We are also a very low-cost producer compared with the rest of the world. That's going to make our product very attractive. It's not just that we have the supply that we're willing to export; it's going to be theoretically at lower prices than are achievable in most of the rest of the world. So it's going to be a very, very in-demand product. RG: We're getting a few requests for recommendations for natural gas. Do you have any natural gas plays that you recommend right now? ML: In The Oxford Income Letter, we have Cheniere Energy Partners (NYSE: CQP). This is another MLP. They're based in Louisiana. Besides producing the gas, they also have terminals where they can ship the gas, so they will be one of the big exporters shipping gas out of the country. Again, it's an MLP, so it's a tax-deferred yield of over 6%. To be clear, this is not Cheniere Energy (NYSE: LNG). This is Cheniere Energy Partners. It's the partnership part of Cheniere Energy. RG: Alternative energy is having trouble keeping up with our energy demands. What is your prognosis for that segment of energy? ML: I think there are a lot of headwinds for it right now, and - I'm going to get political for a second, so I apologize - they're all by the government. Are wind and solar the answer for everything? Of course not. But can they provide some extra clean energy at the moment? Absolutely, they can. We need all the energy that we can get, and the idea that we can't be pro-fossil fuels and pro-solar and wind at the same time is a total mistake. We are basically handing the keys over to China to allow them to become the dominant player in wind and solar. They already are, but their lead is only going to get larger. I think that's going to hurt us down the road. Alternative energy will be a source of energy in this country, and there are companies that will succeed. But it's difficult right now as an investment because of the obstacles that the government is putting in front of it. RG: We received a question in the chat from a viewer: Going back to oil, what is your outlook on oil prices over the next year? ML: If I have to place a bet, I'm saying that I think oil prices are going higher. They're pretty low right now, and like we said, the demand is only getting more and more intense as AI increases its abilities. The new ChatGPT is also going to be coming out. I'm sure in all of our circles, people are talking about it more. People are using it more. Even people who are slow adapters to technology are starting to use it. The exact timeline is hard to project, but in 12 months, will oil be higher than it is today? I believe so. RG: Any final words on energy, Marc? ML: I would say we know that the energy sector is volatile. So if we do get a sell-off, whether it is sector-specific or the whole market sells off, I think that is a sector where you're going to want to consider backing up the truck. I like energy at current prices, but if we get a sell-off, back up the truck and start piling into some good dividend payers and some companies that are going to benefit from this very, very long-term trend upward. It's hard to do that when stocks sell off, but I think this is the sector you're going to want to do that with.
Good investing, Nicole | 
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