Massive oil refiner Valero Energy has been taking stakes in biofuel startups over the last year, including algae fuel maker Solix Biofuels, and cellulosic ethanol maker ZeaChem. But now the company has a different sort of biofuel assets in mind — not next-gen technology,… Read More »
Cleantech
After a year peppered with construction slowdowns, bio-refinery idlings, and more than a dozen bankruptcy filings in the corn ethanol industry, we have an early indicator of how it will shape up post-shakeout — with significantly less cozy alliances between grain growers and… Read More »
Corn-based ethanol has been crashing with the economy, but the prospects for cellulosic ethanol seem a little brighter — SunEthanol, based in Hadley, Mass., says it’s pulled in $25 million in a Series B round, and changed… Read More »
Growth Energy, a new trade organization for corn ethanol companies, is lashing out against critics of corn ethanol by buying ad space in the New York Times and issuing “policy briefs” (bulky pdf files peppered with Excel graphs). Read More »
This year has brought more than its share of surprises to the energy industry, but the bankruptcy of ethanol giant VeraSun Energy was one that few would have predicted at the beginning of the year. The stock started the year at $15.28, down from its June… Read More »
The good news for VeraSun on Thursday was that, early in the morning, its stock was up 42 percent from Wednesday’s close. Now the bad news. That 42-percent jump was just a bounce from one of its stock’s worst days ever. On Wednesday, VSE plummeted 73 percent… Read More »
Wall Street was expecting a net loss from VeraSun on Wednesday, but the ethanol company surprised with a profit of 4 cents. That was good enough news to lift its shares up 4 percent to close at $6.96. But that was about as good as the… Read More »
