The Future Fact Book
The future, graded. What’s real, what’s hype, and what it means for your home, your car and your bills.
I spent 41 years on drilling rigs, from West Texas to North Dakota. I know the difference between a brochure and a working well. For every new technology in this book I answer four questions: is it real, when does it reach you, what does it do to your bills, and should you buy now or wait.
- Natural hydrogen, deep geothermal, the new reactors: real or brochure
- What each one does to your power, heating and fuel bills
- Which of these companies you can own a share of, and which you can’t
01
How it works
No box in the mail, and no account to set up.
The honest math
Four bills, one house, one year.
The four big bills almost every American household pays. On the left, what a typical house pays in a year today. On the right, the same house with things you can buy today. Every number is in the books.
Today Per year
- Electricity: lights, appliances, electronics − $1,314
- Heating, cooling and hot water − $1,807
- Car: fuel and maintenance, 12,000 miles − $3,261
- Phone, internet and cable TV − $3,643
With what you can buy today Per year
- LED bulbs and a time-of-use plan − $1,101
- Heat pump water heater, smart thermostat, air sealing (heat pump where it pays) − $1,084
- The same miles in a hybrid − $2,443
- Discount-brand lines, internet only, antenna and streaming − $1,772
The Buy Now or Wait Book, chapters 1, 2, 5 to 7, 9, 12 and 13 · EIA residential energy data and October 2026 outlook · AAA Your Driving Costs · doxo and BroadbandNow 2026 bill data · carrier price pages · all amounts are about
Difference, every year: about $3,625
03
Look inside
Real pages from the book. This is what opens on your phone, in type big enough to read without your glasses.
← swipe to see more pages →
04
What’s inside
Fifty-six chapters in seven parts, one file. Every technology gets the same grade card: real or hype, when it reaches you, what it does to your bills, and buy now or wait.
- Hydrogen from a Kansas wheat field, and what the first test well really produced · p. 7
- Nine of every ten barrels stay in the shale, and the new tricks to get more out · p. 14
- The Strategic Petroleum Reserve at a 40-year low: what is really in the salt caverns · p. 24
- Diesel made from used cooking oil: the fuel your engine never notices · p. 35
- Oil field rigs drilling for heat: the geothermal plant already selling power · p. 57
- The July 4 reactor race: which small reactors really went critical, and why none made power yet · p. 74
- Why your power bill keeps going up, state by state · p. 102
- The cheap American EV pickup: the price, the date and the catch · p. 150
- Heat pumps at 5 degrees: what the field tests showed, and when they save you nothing · p. 190
- Which of these companies you can actually own a share of, and which you can’t · p. 237
- America’s big bets, checked: Terafab, Starship, Optimus and the robotaxi, built or still a target, and where China stands · p. 281
- The fast trains: what is being built, and when you could ride one · p. 318
And that is a fraction of it. Fifty-six chapters, 358 pages, and the grades for all 51 technologies in one table at the back.
05
Get your copy
$27 once. No subscription. Yours to keep.
A PDF on your phone about thirty seconds after you pay. Nothing ships. Print it at home if you like paper.
The Future Fact Book
- 358 pages, fifty-six chapters, the source under every entry
- Instant PDF download, on your phone about thirty seconds after you pay
- A grade card on every technology: real or hype, when, your bills, buy now or wait
- Which companies you can own a share of, and which you can’t, in one table
- 30-day money back, and you keep the book
Secure checkout · One payment, no subscription · Nothing ships
Goes with it
The Buy Now or Wait Book and After Oil mine for the house and garage, and Kevin Cheng’s on what could replace oil
the other two come to $20.99 together instead of $63
Don’t want all three? Build your own bundle →What readers write me
Dale Hargrove
I’m Dale Hargrove. I grew up in Odessa, Texas, and I went to work on a drilling rig when I was nineteen. Roughneck, derrickhand, driller, and for my last years a drilling superintendent. Forty-one years in the oil patch, from the Permian Basin to the Gulf of Mexico, Oklahoma and North Dakota.
I retired in 2018. My wife and I live outside Tulsa. We have been married 44 years, and we have two grown kids and five grandkids. My old hard hat hangs on the wall of the room where I wrote this.
These days I read everything about energy and new technology. Some of it is real. Some of it is a sales pitch with good lighting. So for every technology in this book I checked what has really been built, who is building it, and what it means for an ordinary house and an ordinary truck.
I’m not an investor and I’m not a financial advisor. Nobody pays me to write this. Not an oil company, not a solar company, not a fund.
The drill bit doesn’t care what the brochure says.
Dale
Questions people ask before they buy.
Is this real, or one of those made-up videos?
It is real. Every entry gets a grade. The grade says how far along it is: on sale, first plants, a test, or only in a lab. It names the source. If a claim is mostly hype, the book says so.
Can I invest in these companies?
Some sell shares to the public. Some do not. Chapter 42 lists which is which. Part six tells how a share works and why most new projects fail. It is facts, not advice. I don’t tell anyone what to buy.
Is a paper book coming in the mail?
No. It is a PDF. That is a book you read on a screen. It is on your phone about 30 seconds after you pay. Want paper? Print it at home or at the library.
I’m not good with computers.
That is fine. You tap one button and the book opens. No account. No password. Stuck? Write to me here. I will help you, or give you your money back.
Is this a subscription? Will you charge my card again?
No. You pay one time. That is all.
What if I lose the file?
The link is in your email. Tap it again. Lost the email too? Write to me from the email you paid with. I will send it the same day.
Will it help with my bills?
It can. Every entry says what it does to your power, heat and fuel bills. The Buy Now or Wait Book adds the math for your house and your truck.
$27 for a book?
Look at the honest math above. One good choice on one bill pays for it many times. And you have 30 days to get your money back. You keep the book.
Is it up to date?
Yes. It was checked in October 2026. Some things are not decided yet. The book says so and gives the date. It does not guess.
Do I need to know about science?
No. I write it in plain words. If you can read a newspaper, you can read this book.
08
Still deciding?
Ask me anything here. I read every message myself, and I write back.
