Oil prices are rapidly approaching $100 a barrel. Coal is vilified as the cause of global warming, and a big tax imposition is only a matter of time. Natural gas is several times its levels earlier in the decade, despite a sector depression that seems to continue to worsen.

I’ve never been impressed by hype surrounding supposedly “disruptive” new technologies—developments billed to change the balance of power in an industry. And my skepticism meter goes positively off the chart when the claims pertain to communications and other utility-like industries.

Income investments come in all shapes and sizes. But all have one thing in common as far as we’re concerned: We’ve got to buy and hold ‘em to get the most out of them.

Half of the 221 companies in the Utility Forecaster coverage universe pay a higher percentage yield than they did two years ago.

In the “carbon constrained world” of the future, nuclear power “becomes your first choice for baseload” power: That’s the opinion of Duke Energy Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers.

Why pay fund managers hefty fees when you can lock in big, growing yields with a little help from Utility Forecaster? That’s the question I’ve posed to UF readers since the first issue in 1989.

Keeping it simple is the surest way to win in investing, provided you have the patience to collect.

You won’t read about it in the papers, but Central and Eastern Europe are growing as fast as China. And few companies are better balanced to ride the wave than Italy’s leading power utility, ENEL.

Credit concerns still grip the markets. But dividend risk in the utility sector is in rapid decline.

Even the best-positioned company can be run into the ground by management incompetence. In contrast, a sound corporate strategy doesn’t guarantee success, but it’s about as close as you’ll come.