Is it too late to get into energy, what with oil prices approaching $70 per barrel and natural gas at nearly $8? No, according to institutional investors who spoke at a recent program at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business in Dallas recently. Energy makes sense because it provides a differentiated return from other asset classes and is a key global industry. What's more, there are many ways to get exposure to it, from public equities and bonds to private-equity or venture-capital formats, they said. "Energy is in all the sectors you may already be invested in anyway. If you're in the S&P 500, you're in energy. If you don't think so, you're misled," said Mark Bernard, managing director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The $18.5-billion endowment has no sources of new funding for its $600 million in annual expenses to support biomedical research, except from its investment earnings. For more on this, see the August issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.

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