Ethanol

[bigsaver]

I doubt ethanol will be it. I think the next thing as the previous poster said will be the electric car. I also heard about Tesla motors. In fact, I may buy one, but I first want to see how it pans out for other people. I was thinking about starting with a prius first until the kinks with the Tesla are worked out. I unfortunately don't have the time to convert a diesel mercedes to vegetable oil.

[Scanner]

Zetta,

The problem with the electric car/engine is you are only going to be able to harness so much power out of it. For a Civic-like vehicle, yes, it's fine.

However, for bulldozers, MACK trucks, cranes, dump trucks, even bread trucks, which make a sigificant amount of our transportation. . .you are going to need something with power and explosiveness - in that, hydrogen is the only viable alternative.

You won't be able to run a 18 wheel big rig on an electric engine.

[greedy4chips]

It takes 10 gallons of gas to produce 15 gallons of ethanol. This is mostly due to the farm equipment and trucking needed to produce the corn and deliver it to production facilities and ultimately the customer.

I think the Amish have already figured out the cheapest alternative.

You won't be able to run a 18 wheel big rig on an electric engine.

What about the electric trains in Japan?

[click4credit]

No - I've done a fair bit of research on Ethanol and it can have it's benefits if produced in the right way. For example when produced from molasses (sugar byproduct) it can often be produced for less energy than the fuel it generates. However, most is made from types of grain and the energy involved in growing the grain, harvesting and producing the ethanol can be greater than the amount of energy from the fuel produced.
I think we will soon be forced to seriously consider alternatives to oil though and some bio-fuels such as bio-diesel show promise.

[geomatster]

Ethanol does have its advantage and some major disadvantages...what do you think of Stocks of companies dealing with Ethanol. Guess it would be a good buy now.

Look at GPRE (Green Plains Renewable Energy) and Diversa (DVSA)

[zetta]

The biggest problem with ethanol in this country is that we have so much focus on making it from corn. If we would reduce the import tarriffs on ethanol made from sugar cane in places like Brazil, it would make a lot more sense environmentally.

Tesla Motors is striving to produce electric cars with Porche level performance, so I think electric is a good solution for family transportation. For the 18-wheelers and heavy-payload pickup trucks, my impression is that bio-diesel contains more energy than ethanol anyway.

[geomatster]

Ethanol Stocks

Any one holding 'ethanol stocks'...do suggest if it would be worthwhile to buy them now, and which ones?

[JBinKC]

I have owned ADM MGPI and HIPC (which merged with Abengoa of which I have a very upsetting story in my last stock) in the past but I see no point in it when the crack spread for the oil refineries are at an all time high and have better valuation metrics.