Last week Provident Energy Trust (PVX: chart, web, Y!) announced that while they had successfully closed the sale of their U.S. oil and gas business, they would also be cutting the monthly dividend to $0.09 Canadian, or about $0.07 USD.

Although that certainly smarts, I can’t say that I’m surprised.

Provident has traditionally been a very conservatively managed trust.  They look to increase their reserves with the smallest amount of risk (i.e. expanding production through infield drilling and acquiring proven reserves), and they really don’t take off any more than they can manage, and manage well.  A case in point was the …

This is why we need to maintain high oil prices: Spur on the little guy to find more, and spur further development with alternative energy.

Gas prices are pushing our government to do something rash.  Folks who are already feeling the crunch from poor credit management to declining equity in housing to fear of job loss and wage reduction are barking for congress to “do something” about gas prices.  It’s understandable.

However, a witch hunt to blame high prices on everything from price gouging at the local level to unreasonably high profits at the national level to speculation on wall street is shaping up to do us more harm than good.

The only thing that will reign in speculation is supply outweighing demand.  …

The government response to high gas prices is turning humorous.

Last week President Bush traveled to the Middle East to try and convince the Saudi’s, among others, to start producing more oil to help fend off even higher-yet oil prices.

Their answer: No dice.

Good for them.

President Bush knew the outcome of this little field trip to play the “whoa is we” card before he even boarded Air Force One.  After all, Bush is an oil man at heart, and a business man by trade.  Not only that, he has some very astute financial and economic gurus that know exactly what’s driving the price of oil.

But he’s also a politician.

The President is also …

Speaking during a Personal MarketWatch interview with senior columnist Chuck Jaffe, Bernard Horn, who runs Polaris Global Value Fund, indicated that companies like Chevron and Chesapeake Energy, while great companies, are not necessarily the stocks to own right now.

His rationale was that the energy stocks in particular, but also the metals stocks, are valued at unsustainable levels of crude and ore prices.

I’ve never been one to consider myself greedy, and this short blurb from MarketWatch.com got me thinking as to whether or not I should start parsing my portfolio of energy.

I’m a firm believer that oil is going …