Grist | Topics | 12 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 12 of 12
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Ten strikes and still not out Biofuels: not cost-effective or lucrative for climate change or business	biodiversivist	03 Sep 2008	Gristmill
According to this article in Mongabay, a study from a British think tank is calling for an end to subsidies for biofuels based on -- not biodiversity loss and high food prices -- cost effectiveness. The economics is startling -- if developed countries spent the same amount of money on preventing deforestation and the destruction of peatlands as they do on biofuel subsidies (US $15 billion), this would halve the total costs of tackling climate change. In addition to t ...
Topics: Seattle, energy subsidies, business, ethanol, biofuels, energy (all these topics)

Next market bubble: farmland! Thanks to the ethanol boom, big investors are plowing cash into corn country	Tom Philpott	07 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Big investors seem to have forgotten how to exist without some sort of speculative bubble. In the last decade, they've whipped cash from tech stocks to bonds to emerging markets to real estate to junk mortgages. With the latter bubble now deflating rapidly, they've turned to ... Midwestern farmland? Yes, big cornfields. Here's a Chicago asset manager talking about who's buying up farmland, quoted in USA Today: It's everybody from the person concerned about the sto ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, economy, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

Stock analysts v. venture capitalists Tom Konrad on cellulosic electricity	Guest author	24 Jan 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Tom Konrad, a financial analyst specializing in renewable energy and energy efficiency companies, a freelance writer, and a contributor to AltEnergyStocks.com. ----- Romm v. Khosla In a persuasive series of articles entitled "Pragmatists vs. Environmentalists" (Parts I, II, and III), Vinod Khosla has provided the reasoning behind his "dissing" of plug-in hybrids, which drew the ire of Joseph Romm. Nei ...
Topics: biofuels, business, energy, renewable energy, ethanol, cellulosic ethanol (all these topics)

Monsanto counts its cash Seed-and-chemical giant sees its profit triple	Tom Philpott	04 Jan 2008	Gristmill
In a gold rush, the firms that supply the gold diggers with tools -- not the gold diggers themselves -- make the highest and steadiest profits. That's a platitude, but it's also usually true. And it's now playing out in the boom in corn-based ethanol. Don't waste much time envying corn farmers. Sure, they've seen the price of their product double over the past year and a half or so. But they've also seen their costs inch up. Fertilizer, land rents (much of the farml ...
Topics: industrial ag, energy, food, agriculture, business, biofuels, ethanol (all these topics)

They Were Cobbed Busting ethanol market bad news for investors		19 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 11:02 AM on 19 Nov 2007 The U.S. ethanol boom has been brought up short by market glut, making corn-based fuel "2007's worst energy investment," a Bloomberg News Service article declared today. President Bush made ethanol a centerpiece of his energy plan and lavished it with subsidies; ethanol distilleries that went up quickly in anticipation are now having to shut down. Producer Pacific Ethanol Inc., backed by Mi ...
Topics: Big Ag, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol, news (all these topics)

The 'Exxon of corn' licks its chops Archer Daniels Midland sees glut as opportunity to consolidate the ethanol market	Tom Philpott	03 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Over the past year, ethanol production has exploded -- surpassing even the dramatically higher "alternative fuel requirement" in last year's energy bill. And now we have a glut of ethanol on the market, which has pushed prices down dramatically and caused many ethanol plants -- particularly independent farmer-owned ones -- to struggle. But Archer Daniels Midland, hailed on Wall Street as the Exxon of corn, is seeing the downturn in ethanol prices as an ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

FutureFlex/LoveSounds An interview with Mary Beth Stanek, General Motors energy director	Yolanda Crous	15 Dec 2006	Main Dish
Trucks with a green hue? GM is in heaven. What a difference three bucks a gallon makes. In the past year, General Motors has rallied state and federal support to get more E85 (an 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline blend) pumps at U.S. gas stations, launched a corn-hued marketing blitz, and announced that it is increasing production of its flex-fuel vehicles by 25 percent. Ma ...
Topics: biofuels, business, cars, energy, ethanol, interview (all these topics)

Miles to Go An interview with Missouri farmer and ethanol co-op member Brian Miles	Yolanda Crous	13 Dec 2006	Main Dish
Cultivating change? Photo: iStockphoto Like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him, Brian Miles spends his days working the family farm. Unlike his forebears, however, he also sits on the board of Mid-Missouri Energy, a farmer-owned ethanol cooperative in Malta Bend, Mo. Grist talked to Miles about the present ethanol boom, the potential for an ethanol bust, and the ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol, interview, Missouri (all these topics)

Something Ventured, Something Gained Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla chats about the promise of ethanol	Amanda Griscom Little	08 Dec 2006	Main Dish
Venture capitalist and ethanol booster Vinod Khosla. Billionaires are piling onto the biofuels bandwagon. Bill Gates is doing it. Richard Branson is doing it. The Google guys are doing it. Less well-known is the billionaire who kicked off the whole trend: Vinod Khosla, a cofounder of Sun Microsystems and former partner with Kleiner Perkins, the ven ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

Strike It Richard Richard Branson chats about embracing ethanol and slashing airplane emissions	Amanda Griscom Little	07 Dec 2006	Main Dish
Does a music mogul who signed the Rolling Stones and Janet Jackson have what it takes to make a pop star out of biofuels? Sir Richard. Earlier this fall, publicity-chasing British entrepreneur Richard Branson made a $3 billion bet that he could do just that -- and help solve the climate crisis to boot -- via Virgin Fuels, a new company in his wide-ranging Virgin Gr ...
Topics: biofuels, business, climate, energy, ethanol, greening biz operations, Richard Branson (all these topics)

Give Green, Go Yellow How cash and corporate pressure pushed ethanol to the fore	Tom Philpott	06 Dec 2006	Main Dish
... got all liquored on that road house corn ... -- Tom Waits, "Gun Street Girl" Before it became widely used as a car fuel, ethanol was just grain liquor -- and the federal government was not particularly kind to it. We pledge allegiance to ADM. Shortly after the American Revolution, the new government imposed a draconian tax on the stuff, hoping to pay down wartime debt. ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

GM and ethanol Just because General Motors calls it green doesn't mean it is.	David Roberts	08 Jan 2006	Gristmill
Joel Makower reports that General Motors will lead a joint demonstration project "to learn more about consumer awareness and acceptance of E85 as a motor vehicle fuel by demonstrating its use in GM's flexible-fuel vehicles." The California Department of Transportation will use some flex-fuel vehicles and work with Chevron Technology Ventures to make sure there are filling stations that offer E85 (gas w/ 85% ethanol). A company called Pacific Ethanol will pr ...
Topics: biofuels, business, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

Stories About: biofuels AND business AND energy AND ethanol