Son of Xethanol Goes Bankrupt

I have written several essays on Xethanol over the past few years. If you recall, they were a poster child for the theme of “overpromise, boost your stock price, and get rich quick” on biofuels. […]

Pacific Ethanol Plants Declare Bankruptcy

I don’t actually enjoy posting “I told you so” stories, especially when the news is negative. This means someone has failed, and I don’t enjoy seeing people fail. But when I put a spotlight on […]

Top 10 Energy Stories of 2008

Tis the season for Top 10 stories, and here are what I think were the Top 10 energy stories of the year. 1. Unprecedented volatility in the energy markets Oil prices raced to nearly $150 […]

Xethanol Now Defunct

This will be my last ever story on Xethanol. I have written a number of stories on them in the past. I wrote that their claims that they would be the first to produce commercial […]

Investing in Energy Storage

I attended a presentation last year where a number of alternative energy technologies were discussed, and I was asked whether any major topic had been missed. I responded that I felt like the single most […]

Coal-Based Ethanol

The handwriting has been on the wall on this issue for a couple of years. In fact, I first mentioned it in March 2006 in Improving the Prospects for Grain Ethanol. Here is an excerpt […]

Xethanol: Another Multimillion Dollar Loss

Xethanol continues to demonstrate that even with generous subsidies, they can’t make any money: Xethanol Announces Second Quarter 2007 Financial Results For the second quarter of 2007, the company reported a net loss of $6.6 […]

Predictions: Hits, Misses, and Pending

I have made a lot of predictions in my writings, and my own impression is that my track record has been pretty good. But I started wondering a few days ago if that’s because I […]

Xethanol’s March toward Bankruptcy

In the continuing saga of Xethanol (XNL) – the poster child for overhyped cellulosic ethanol claims – they took one more step toward bankruptcy this week with their earnings release: Xethanol Announces First Quarter 2007 […]

Xethanol Can’t Deliver on its Promises

The Xethanol saga continues, but is probably nearing an end. I have written a pair of articles about this, after being initially interviewed by Sharesleuth.com for their article: Moonshine Blindness I had indicated my deep […]