The refining sector has been in the news a few times this week, and not in a good way:A Fine Mess For U.S. Refineries HOUSTON — Excess capacity, weak demand for fuels and rising product […]
What Happened to a Buck a Gallon?
Coskata will produce ethanol for under US $1.00 a gallon anywhere in the world, from almost any input material. – Coskata Vision Statement A bit more than a year ago, I read a number of […]
Updates on the Diablo Scammer
Update 12-09-09: All of the scammer’s websites that he tried to use when scamming me are now offline. Further, I am cooperating with the authorities to actually track him down and bring him to justice. […]
Exposing a Two-Bit Scammer
Update 12-9-09: This story continues to get a lot of hits (it has been accessed 18,291 times since someone linked to it at Reddit two weeks ago), and I am aware that with the updates […]
Energy Potpourri
I am at the 2009 Gasification Technologies Conference this week, with a pretty full schedule. But there are three stories that I wanted to quickly hit. One is a follow-up on the previous cellulosic ethanol […]
Cellulosic Ethanol Falling Short
The reason I spend time debunking wild claims is that I think they damage the entire bioenergy sector in the long run. People who issue press releases claiming they can produce fuel for $1/gallon – […]
Ethanol, Imports, and the MTBE Effect
I am traveling later this week, and will be on the road for nine days (Colorado, New York, Massachusetts). I was trying to wrap up the loose ends from my previous post with a much […]
Does Ethanol Reduce Petroleum Imports?
One of the main arguments in favor of ethanol production in the U.S. is that it supports the goals of energy independence by getting us off of foreign oil. After all, we could just tell […]
CNG in Your Beer
Thanks to a reader for this story: Cheap Natural Gas Drives Truck Alternatives NEW YORK (Dow Jones) – If you order a beer in New York, the odds are growing that it was delivered by […]
Gas Taxes and Long Range Energy Planning
I consider the level of dependence of the U.S. on imported petroleum to be a very large financial risk endangering the country’s future. There are certainly other import-related risks as well, but here I want […]