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December 28, 2007
Drobo is catching on
Eric is the third person to tell me to get one. I better get one soon. 1TB drives are only $249 at fry's.
Posted by Martin at 9:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 21, 2007
Want to see the Sonics in my seats?
I have had season tickets for 15 years. First row of bleachers. Great seats. I have a couple games up on stubhub if you want them.
Event: Dallas Mavericks at Seattle SuperSonics Tickets
Venue: Key Arena
Date: April 13, 2008 06:00 (PDT)
Section: 107
Row: 1
Seats: 14,15
Price: $250.00
To check this out, just follow this link -
http://www.stubhub.com/?/?gcid=C12289x206&ticket_ID=111591007
StubHub is your place to buy tickets.
Posted by Martin at 1:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 19, 2007
Submit your business plan to me
Alot of readers want to know how to get a business plan to me. Submit it to the NW Energy Angels, the group I started and chair. I look forward to it.
Posted by Martin at 8:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
President signes neutered Energy Bill
President Bush Signs Energy Bill
By Steven Mufson
Wednesday, December 19, 2007; 10:47 AM
President Bush on Wednesday signed into law legislation meant to reduce
The bill, the product of a year of rhetoric, lobbying, veto threats and negotiations, won final approval yesterday in the House of Representatives on a 314 to 100 vote, and Bush moved quickly to make it official. At a signing ceremony, Bush said the bill would "address our vulnerabilities and dependence" on imported oil, saying that the bill offered the country a chance to cut pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and even reduce the likelihood of terrorist attacks.
Lawmakers said the energy bill will reduce America's heavy reliance on imported oil and take a modest step toward slowing climate change by cutting about a quarter of the greenhouse-gas emissions that most scientists say the United States must eliminate by 2030 to do its share to avert the most dire effects of global warming.
"It is a national security issue, it is an economic issue, it is an environmental issue, and therefore a health issue," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "It is an energy issue, and it is an moral issue."
White House press secretary Dana Perino gave credit to Bush, saying he "pushed Congress to pass this legislation all year." But congressional Democrats said they had withstood veto threats by the White House as well as heavy lobbying by automakers and coal companies before ultimately preserving much of what they wanted in the legislation.
The bill's centerpiece is the boost in the minimum fuel-efficiency standard
for passenger vehicles, the first to be passed by Congress since 1975. It
requires new auto fleets to average 35 miles a gallon by 2020, a 40 percent
increase from today's 25-mile average. By 2020, the measure could reduce
The bill will also have sweeping impact in areas beyond the automobile industry.
For farmers and agribusiness, it is a windfall, providing more support than perhaps even the farm bill. It doubles the use of corn-based ethanol -- despite criticism that corn-based ethanol is driving up food prices, draining aquifers and exacerbating fertilizer runoff that is creating dead zones in many of the nation's rivers.
The law will also require the massive use of biofuels using other feedstocks, creating an industry from technologies still in laboratories or pilot stages whose economic viability is unproven. The law says that at least 36 billion gallons of motor fuel a year should be biofuels by 2022, most of it in "advanced biofuels," not a drop of which are commercially produced today.
Although the bill does not include any costs for the biofuels mandate, a fivefold increase over current production, it is likely that current subsidies for those fuels will be extended. If so, the mandate could cost the federal government as much as $140 billion over 15 years.
Bush and congressional supporters of the bill say the expanded use of
biofuels will help cut
One portion of the bill sets new efficiency standards for appliances and
will make the incandescent bulb -- invented two centuries ago and improved and
commercialized by
The commercial building industry could also be transformed by new incentives for energy-efficient windows, equipment and design. The federal government is supposed to make all of its buildings carbon-neutral through energy efficiency and clean energy use by 2030.
"The General Services Administration is the country's biggest landlord," said Andrew Goldberg, chief lobbyist for the American Institute of Architects. "This will help transform the marketplace for systems and equipment that make buildings more energy efficient and reduce the reliance on fossil fuel."
Not everyone was happy at the end of a year of haggling and lobbying. To secure passage for the bill, congressional leaders dropped a tax package that would have reduced breaks for the biggest oil and gas companies and extended breaks for wind and solar projects.
"We're pretty disappointed," said Rhone A. Resch, president of the
Solar Energy Industries Association, which sought an extension of the
investment tax credit that expires at the end of next year. "Clearly the
most important provisions for us were left on the cutting-room floor."
Resch said that because of long lead times for big solar projects, "we
will see the
But many environmental groups and lawmakers were elated. "This bill is a clean break with the failed energy policies of the past and puts us on the path toward a cleaner, greener energy future," said Carl Pope, director of the Sierra Club.
Rep.
Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who proposed raising fuel-efficiency standards
in 2001, 2003 and 2005, said that the energy bill would help the
Two years ago, a Markey amendment on fuel efficiency failed by an 87-vote margin, closer than his earlier efforts. But this year Democratic leaders made an energy bill a top priority. And Bush, in his State of the Union address, endorsed a similar boost in gasoline mileage standards and urged Americans to break their "addiction" to oil.
Soaring prices for oil and petroleum products and growing public concern
about climate change also encouraged lawmakers to back higher fuel-efficiency
standards. While
"I think between process, policy and politics it all came together and we have an energy bill no one could have envisioned six months ago," said Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Campaign for Fuel Efficiency.
Cuttino said that the Pew Campaign, founded in April, would close its doors in mid-January.
Posted by Martin at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Time article with pictures...
CleanTechArticlePg1.jpg
CleanTechArticlePg2.jpg
CleanTechArticlePg3.jpg
CleanTechArticlePg4.jpg
Posted by Martin at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Time article with pictures...
CleanTechArticlePg1.jpg CleanTechArticlePg2.jpg CleanTechArticlePg3.jpg CleanTechArticlePg4.jpgPosted by Martin at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
or use this link
to my segment on KIRO Profiles.
Posted by Martin at 12:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Look mom, an extended TV interview with Martin
Just watched the KIROTV profile of me. Kinda creepy to see myself larger than life on the 16 ft TV screen. Oh, well, there is a small screen version here for those who are interested.
Posted by Martin at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 18, 2007
House passes energy bill
House passes energy bill by a margin of 314-100.
Ill get you the breakdown but its likely all the WA delegation voted for it but Hastings.
The language has not changed from the Senate passed version.
President Bush will sign the bill tomorrow.
Posted by Martin at 3:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 17, 2007
Morgan Stanley calls off its spec trade on ethanol
Buy on the rumor, sell on the news. That is a time tested strategy on Wall Street. In late Nov, MS made a short term call to buy Ethanol stocks. The stocks rallied in expectation of the Energy Bill passing. It has and is allbut law. The House and president should get through it this week. So MS says sell. I disagree, but here is MS logic:
CLEAN
ENERGY: CATALYST TRIGGERED; SHORT-TERM TRADE DONE - December 17, 2007
GMT (6 pgs/ 64 kb)
David Wilson, CFA +1 (1)713 512 4482 Morgan Stanley & Co.
Incorporated
Closing Our Short-Term Trade: In light of recent positive developments
surrounding the Energy Bill, we prefer to "take money off the table,"
locking in recent gains in the ethanol stocks, rather than subject those gains
to possible deterioration as we head into 2008. As a group, the ethanol names
are 60% above 52-week lows today.
The Background and Reasons: We put forth a short-term trade idea on
November 26 to buy the ethanol stocks due to impending legislative catalysts.
We now believe it is appropriate to close that trade in light of i) the
catalyst - a new renewable fuel standard (RFS) playing out and ii) some of the
near-term uncertainty facing the industry. (See our notes "Biofuel
Update: A Short-Term Trading Idea" Nov. 26, 2007, and "Biofuel
Update: Energy Bill Still Pending, Still a Catalyst" Dec 11, 2007). We
believe that significant upside to the ethanol stocks at these levels is
unlikely in the near-term based on the poor overall stock performance in 2007
(excluding recent weeks' performance), the potential ethanol oversupply situation
in 2008, and higher corn prices. Furthermore, given these reasons and
uncertainty surrounding the industry in 2008, we see there is increased risk
that the stocks trade down from current levels as we head into 2008.
What's New: Last week the US Senate passed a modified Energy Bill with
an increased RFS calling for 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022. The
House of Representatives must ratify the bill and the President sign it for it
to become law, but we see these as low hurdles as i) the House already approved
the bill once before and ii) the White House indicated its favor of the bill.
We expect the Energy Bill to be signed in to law this week. Performance of the
ethanol stocks on Friday December 14, 2007, suggests that this event is being
priced into the stocks.
Posted by Martin at 7:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More tech people going green
ZDNet has picked up on the story (welcome late guys). I like this part:
Although it's in a different industry, Microsoft's heavy presence in
the Seattle area could be helping boost the creation of green
companies.
Former Microsofties, who either cashed out or simply moved on, have
founded green-tech companies. Perhaps the most successful Microsoft
veteran so far is Martin Tobias, CEO of biodiesel maker Imperium
Renewables.
Posted by Martin at 7:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
My profile on KIROTV
KIRO TV is doing a news program on people in the NorthWest. Apparently there is a segment on me coming up Tuesday Dec. 18 at 10PM. Set your TIVO.
Making the world a better place—and making a profit while doing it—is
Martin Tobias’ latest venture. The founder and CEO of Loudeye
Technologies wants Americans to kick their fossil fuel addiction and
switch to environmentally-friendly biodiesel. In 2004 he joined a group
of investors to lay the groundwork for the construction of the nation’s
largest biodiesel refinery; in August, Imperium Renewables began
refining and selling biodiesel worldwide.Tobias tells KIRO 7’s
Chris Egert the only thing that matters to him is solving the critical
problems facing America. First it was conquering computer technology;
now it’s supplying alternative energy.
Posted by Martin at 7:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 14, 2007
Farm bill clears Senate
So the Senate punted the tax extension for biodiesel credit from the energy bill to the farm bill yesterday. I think this is chickenshit, but then they passed the farm bill. I guess that is progress Washington DC style.
Farm Bill Clears
Senate; January Conference Next
|
|
The
Senate today overwhelmingly passed the 2007 farm bill, capping a prolonged
debate that saw hundreds of proposed amendments whittled down to a few dozen.
By a 79-14 vote, Senators approved the $288 billion measure,
which authorizes federal farm programs for five years.
“We have a good farm bill,” said Senate Agriculture, Nutrition
and Forestry Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) following the vote.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the ranking Republican on the committee, acknowledged
regional differences that emerged during the debate but noted broad bipartisan
support for the measure.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said today’s tally represented the most votes for a
farm bill since 1973.
The bill contains billions for conservation, energy, specialty crops and rural
investment. “We have met our obligations not just to farmers and ranchers but
to rural communities,” Harkin said.
Harkin said he would meet with House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson
(D-Minn.) next week to begin preparations for a January conference committee.
Harkin has said the conference should be completed by the end of January. The
White House has repeatedly criticized the bill, but a presidential veto of the
popular bill is considered unlikely.
Today’s vote followed a two-week procedural standoff over the decision Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to limit the scope of debate, which
culminated with a failed cloture vote before Thanksgiving. The bill was revived
last week after the two parties settled the dispute by agreeing to 20
amendments each.
In an effort to complete the bill today, several amendments were agreed to and
adopted in a manager’s amendment.
Not included was a Harkin amendment to limit junk food in schools. He vowed to
revisit the issue.
“We’re not giving up,” he told reporters.
The bill includes a package of agriculture tax measures attached by
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).
These provisions include the creation of a $5.1 billion trust fund to help ranchers
and farmers hurt by crop and livestock losses, the conversion of a number of
conservation payment programs into fully offset tax credit programs, and
additional incentives for rural economic development and energy-related tax
relief to aid agricultural producers.
“Our hardworking agricultural producers deserve a strong safety net and more
money in their pockets through this much-needed tax relief,” Baucus said. “The
agriculture tax provisions the Senate approved today will recognize the
sacrifices of farming families, reward their efforts to conserve American land,
and revitalize the rural communities where they live.”
Posted by Martin at 4:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Look mom, I am in Time Mag next week.
Should
be in print next week. Will get a few copies for you. Picture wasn’t online,
but it will be in print
Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007
Gambling on Green
By BRYAN WALSH
Grays
Harbor, a foggy bay 90 minutes outside
None
of this would have happened, however, without a spark of venture capital. That
came from Martin Tobias of Seattle-based firm Ignition Partners. A restless
ex-Microsoft executive, Tobias thought software had maxed out, and by 2004 he
was looking for the next big thing. He found it in the emerging clean-tech
sector — which encompasses renewable energy, environmental efficiency and water
— and discovered the struggling start-up Seattle Biodiesel, which had just been
launched by a former airline pilot. Tobias injected badly needed capital,
eventually buying 20% of the company and becoming CEO of the renamed Imperium
Renewables. ("Less local," he explains.) More funding came from angel
investors and successful rounds of venture financing, and today Imperium is set
to break ground on new plants in
Once
the province of those with long hair and short credit lines, today clean tech
is a prime target for the smartest — and richest — investors in the world.
Green investment by American venture-capital firms reached $2.6 billion in the
first three quarters of 2007, the highest level ever recorded and nearly 50%
more than the total for the whole of 2006. The European clean-energy sector is
already producing winning companies in countries like Germany and Spain, and in
rapidly growing China nearly 20% of all venture capital was channeled into
clean companies in 2006 — double the percentage in the U.S. Green start-ups
searching for cash "have gone from a desert to drinking from a fire
hose," says Nancy Floyd, head of the alternative energy–focused venture-capital
firm Nth Power, which also has invested in Imperium Renewables. Like Tobias,
Silicon Valley stalwarts who helped power the IT revolution see clean tech as
an investment opportunity that could have no ceiling — and that comes with the
side benefit of potentially saving the world. Vinod Khosla, famous for being a
co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has put massive bets on biofuels, while his
former partners at leading venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield
& Byers (Kleiner Perkins) have belatedly followed in a big way, investing
more than $270 million in the green-tech sector and hiring Nobel prizewinner Al
Gore as an active partner. As Kleiner Perkins' Bill Joy told a recent gathering
of clean-tech CEOs in
That
capital is already paying off. Revenues for companies in solar energy, wind,
biofuels and fuel cells surged from $40 billion in 2005 to $55 billion in 2006,
according to the research group Clean Edge. Clean energy–related companies
raised over $10.3 billion in ipos in 2006, up from $4.3 billion in 2005, and
hot new companies such as First Solar, whose stock jumped from $25 to $215 in
the past year, are angling to become green Googles. In turn, green venture
capital in the
The
new new thing
For CEOs who founded clean-tech companies before this explosion of interest,
the sudden materialization of capital can seem too good to be true. When Tom
Todaro launched Seattle-based Targeted Growth, which uses genetic engineering
to greatly enhance the yields of crops, he thought the company's ability to
multiply the amount of feedstock available for biodiesel or ethanol would make
it a star of the emerging biofuels sector. But it was the late 1990s, when
clean tech made up less than 1% of total venture-capital spending, and
investors weren't interested. "I went begging to friends and families and
small investment firms," Todaro recalls. "At one point we were 90
days away from having to cut back operations."
Though
they couldn't be more different from former dotcom darlings like
Pets.com, clean-tech
start-ups were hit hard by the vaporization of venture capital in the wake of
the tech and Internet bust of 2000. Funding for green venture capital plunged
over the next three years. But it wasn't just flashbacks to that meltdown that
initially kept venture capitalists cool on clean tech. Starting up an Internet
company required relatively low levels of capital — at least before you started
buying your employees massage chairs — and dangled the possibility of a quick
and lucrative payoff. Cracking the energy sector, with its powerful incumbent
companies and forbiddingly high capital costs, requires a more patient investor.
"There may be some VCs willing to finance a $100 million project plant,
but most can't," says Howard Berke, a veteran tech entrepreneur and
co-founder of the solar company Konarka. "It could mean a longer [wait]
for returns than what early-stage venture capitalists are accustomed to."
The
tide began to turn in 2004, thanks partly to rapidly climbing oil prices that
instantly made alternative energy more competitive, and partly to government
action in the
By
2006, the clean-tech sector was absorbing 11% of all venture capital in North
America and
No
single venture capitalist may be more responsible for that shift than Khosla,
who formed Khosla Ventures in 2004 in part because his Kleiner Perkins partners
were still hesitant to dive into clean tech. Khosla had no such fears, and he
has emerged as a clean-tech evangelist. "By 2000, I felt that software and
other businesses were reaching a dead end," he says. "But energy was
an area where there were large markets that could benefit from
innovation." Khosla hasn't held back — in the first nine months of 2007,
Khosla Ventures participated in 14 deals worth nearly $70 million. He has
spread his bets along a range of clean-tech sectors, with a particular focus on
biofuel start-ups such as Range Fuels, which is close to commercializing
biofuel out of agricultural residue like wood chips, rather than food crops.
Nothing has paid off big for him yet — in fact, prices for corn-based ethanol,
which Khosla has also invested in, crashed in 2007, largely due to
overproduction. But Khosla, who sees corn as a stepping stone to superior
cellulosic ethanol, is undaunted. "This is a great market with great
fundamentals," he says.
Still,
the dotcom bust casts a shadow, with fears that once again too much money is
chasing too few good ideas. The drive to go green, so strong today, could
rapidly lose momentum if oil prices were to drop significantly, and it hasn't
escaped notice that clean tech has yet to produce a bank-breaking success like
Netscape, which made Kleiner Perkins a fortune. "Everybody with a dollar
thinks they're a clean-tech investor now," says Foundation Capital's Grosser.
"A ton of people could lose a lot of money on solar or biofuels." But
defenders point out that the burgeoning energy needs of
Big
names from the mainstream business world are migrating into the clean-tech
sector — because they want to help the planet and their bankbook. Lois Quam, a
pioneering health-care executive, who was last year named one of Fortune's 50 Most Powerful
Women in Business, joined the Minneapolis-based investment bank Piper Jaffray
to guide its rapidly growing alternative-energy portfolio. "You see so
many good companies and entrepreneurs entering this space," says Quam.
"This is the biggest business opportunity for this country."
Prophets
of profits
That's a message much of the rest of the world has already absorbed. Though the
But
both Europe and the
That
pressing need for innovation is the ultimate challenge for everyone involved in
the green sector, including the venture capitalists funding it. Some
environmentalists like to say that we already have the technology we need to
defeat global warming. This is not true. Creating the advances needed to
rapidly decarbonize our energy supply — at a price the developing world can
afford — will require the investment of countless billions of dollars for
research and development. At the moment, we're not even close to victory, but
many of the best, smartest and richest investors around have now joined the
battle. At the end of a presentation on Kleiner Perkins' green-tech initiative
at this year's TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, an
invitation-only gathering of global thinkers, legendary venture capitalist John
Doerr silenced his audience when he briefly broke down, pondering the future
his 15-year-old daughter would face if nothing were done to stop climate
change. "We face irreversible and catastrophic consequences," Doerr
said. "We must act and we must act decisively." Investors like Doerr
have financed revolutions before. Let's hope they spark another.
With
reporting by Alex Altman/London and Kathleen Kingsbury/Hong Kong
Posted by Martin at 3:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Propel opening more stations
Propel had a good announcement with vulcan yesterday. A new flagship biodiesel station fully automated. They use Imperium fuel. This is starting a real revolution in the retail fuel business.
Posted by Martin at 9:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Senate passes neutered Energy Bill
Finally. 36B gallons RFS, new CAFE standards and some energy effeciency. All the easy stuff actually. They took out the RPS (renewable electricity) and any money for tax extensions. They also caved to Oil lobby on raising taxes on oil. The bill with the taxes failed by ONE VOTE in the senate early yesterday. Think your vote doesn't matter? Unbelievable that today in these times of $90 oil our Senate can't get the votes to raise taxes on Oil companies. I am embarrassed for America.
Posted by Martin at 9:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 13, 2007
Marrill Lynch calls up oil another $10 to $82 in 2008
Yet another Wall Street bank moved up their price target for crude in 2008 after last week's EIA report. Merrill Lynch raised their price target from $72 to $82. Read the summary 2008-2010 report here. They are slowly waking up to reality. They still have a reduction in 2009, but I expect that to change too.
Posted by Martin at 8:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 12, 2007
Motley Fool calls Cleantech "biggest economic opportunity of the century"
I, uh, tend to agree.
Posted by Martin at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What I want for Christmas
Well it is getting that time again. Making the Christmas list for 2007. I skipped this category last year. I expect to make a number of posts in the coming days. Here are a few.
The Seed Kit, make at home wood surfboard by Grain Surfboards. This is a 6'5" single fin, very floaty. I just want to be able to say I made the board I am riding on. And I want a single fin.
Rudy Giuliani for President.
A surf trip to Namotu in Fiji.
Posted by Martin at 9:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
gotta laugh at this one
Posted by Martin at 9:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Go to Ybor City, Florida
Hey, my mother has a new gig. As a tour guide for Authentic Florida. Watch her first video tour of Ybor City on YouTube! Way to go mom.
Posted by Martin at 8:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thunderstruck dies an early death (rated 1 star)
With the cover quote of “A ripping yarn of murder and invention” from Los Angeles Times, you would think that this one would grab you from page one. I put it down on page 88 without knowing or caring what the hell these characters were doing. All background. Nothing happened, just page after page of character and scene description. And not very good either. This is a turd.
Posted by Martin at 8:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why I recommend "The Truth Can't Be Delivered with Novocaine: Ann Coulter at Her Best, Funniest, and Most Outrageous"
Total Ann Coulter snack food. Unfortunately there is little new work here, just reprints and pithy quotes from previous Human Events articles. Each chapter is on a different issue, so you can have all Coulter’s whit on each subject condensed. If you are a fan, you should read it. But not earth shattering. I have the most fun just leaving it on the coffee table to infuriate my liberal friends. I rate 3 of 5 stars
Posted by Martin at 8:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Liberal/Republican holiday wishes
Received this from a friend today. It is brilliant:
To all myLiberal friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the wintersolstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To all my Republican friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Posted by Martin at 3:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 11, 2007
Thanks Fed for higher oil (oh and thanks EIA for raising price estimates and demand estimates too)...
When the dollar gets cheaper (as it did today with .25bp drop by fed), Oil gets higher. It is physics. Look for oil to go even higher. Oh, and then there is demand and tightness in supply. Most wall street investment banks have oil at a $60-$65 price in 2008. Only Goldman has it up at $80. Well the leading independent analyst of this, the EIA today went up to $80. That now puts the big banks on the low end of government estimates. Do not expect this to last.
From Lehman today:
·
Market Settle: The front
month NYMEX WTI futures contract closed up $2.16 to $90.02. The 48-month NYMEX
WTI futures contract closed up $0.71 to $85.24. The front month ICE Brent
futures contract closed up $1.95 to $89.99. The 48-month ICE Brent futures
contract closed up $0.56 to $84.99. The front month DME Oman futures contract
closed up $1.65 to $85.45.
·
DOE Stats Preview – Crude to draw, gasoline to build, distillate to
stay flat
·
EIA revises monthly estimate for global oil demand by 1.4m b/d;
U.S. and China by 30k b/d each
·
Oklahoma oil pipelines resume operations after power failure
·
Darfur rebels halt 35k b/d of Chinese production
Houston Ship Channel
reopens to tanker traffic, ending two-day closure
Posted by Martin at 6:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Congrats to TTM
TTM raised $120M this week breaking Imperium Renewables's record as the largest venture financing in the state this year. Glad to see it as I am also a shareholder there through Ignition Partners.
Posted by Martin at 6:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
UBS bullish on renewable energy
checkout their latest research.
Positive potential catalyst in the US Energy Bill
Positive potential catalyst in Bali talks
Postivie catalyst in new renewables law in Germany.
Posted by Martin at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 9, 2007
CARB enacts new port measures to reduce diesel particulate
Times are a changing on the water. I have written before on how ports are a big source of pollution and how converting the trucks and equipment to biodiesel could significantly reduce pollution. In Seattle, SSA has done this. Royal Carribean, one of Imperium Renewables customers has also converted a significant number of ships to biodiesel in part for economics in part to get a jump on regulations. Now CARB has made a number of things mandatory by 2014 which I believe will significantly drive the demand for biodiesel in ports. Go CARB.
Posted by Martin at 9:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 7, 2007
Chevron says it may stop further investments in Galveston biodiesel plant
More evidence that Chevron is only paying lip service to biodiesel and not following through on real investments.
FO Licht's World Ethanol & Biofuels ReportFriday December 07 2007
Chevron Corp. has signalled it may stop investing in a biodiesel fuel plant in Galveston, clouding the future of an operation that had been counting on the oil company's backing to expand, according to people familiar with the situation.
The oil giant's hesitation has created uncertainty for the plant's Houston-based owner, Standard Renewable Energy, which runs the plant through an affiliate called BioSelect Fuels.
The companies are still negotiating, the sources said, and San-Ramon, California-based Chevron still may decide to increase its investment in the project, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Chevron would say only that it remains a partner in the venture, without speculating on its future role. Officials at Standard Renewable Energy declined comment.
With Chevron's role in question, Standard Renewable Energy has begun rethinking initial expansion plans that would have made its Galveston Bay
Rather thancharging ahead with plans to increase the plant's production capacity from about 20 mln gallons per year today to more than 100 mln gallons per year, the focus has turned to upgrading storage and transportation infrastructure at the site, sources said.
That more cautious approach, however, may be driven by factors beyond Chevron's potentially reduced involvement.
Kent Robertson, a Chevron spokesman, stressed that Chevron, through its Chevron Technology Ventures subsidiary, remains a minority investor in the Galveston plant. The unit holds a 22% stake.
But he declined to say whether Chevron will inject more money into the project. "We haven't announced plans for future investment," he said.
Chevron is one of the only US oil companies to invest in the actual production of biofuels. Some competitors only blend biofuels with conventional petroleum fuels or invest in biofuels research.
Yet Chevron, the second-largest US oil company, remains focused on oil and natural gas exploration, as it made clear today with the release of its 2008 capital expenditure budget. Capital spending will increase 15% percent to $22.9 bln, with more than $17 bln going to oil and gas production. The balance will go to oil refinery upgrades and other activities that include research in renewable fuels, the company said.
Chevron has said it expects to spend more than $2.5 billion between 2007 and 2009 on alternative and renewable energy technologies, including biofuels.
In May, Chevron officials were in Galveston for the plant's grand opening and held up the facility as an example of the company's commitment to renewable energy technologies.
"Our involvement with BioSelect Galveston will allow us to apply our world-class capabilities in transportation fuel manufacturing and distribution while expanding our knowledge and experience in large-scale biofuels production," said Donald Paul, Chevron's vice president and chief technology officer.
At the same event, Standard Renewable Energy CEO John Berger said Chevron was "setting an example for the energy industry."
But after investing money in the project five separate times over two years, Chevron balked at the latest request to invest more in the plant, sources said.
The Galveston Bay Biodiesel plant has been touted as one of the nation's first large-scale production plants. The initial goal was to boost production to 60 mln gallons a year by fall 2007 and 110 mln gallons by 2008.
Beyond the Galveston facility, BioSelect had plans to open more US biofuel plants, hitting 470 mln gallons of capacity by 2010.
It's not clear how those plans might change in a sluggish biodiesel market and without additional investment from Chevron in the Galveston Bay plant.
Eric Melvin, CEO of Mobius Risk Group, a Houston-based commodity risk advisory firm that owns asmall stake in the Galveston plant, said he hadn't heard of plans by Chevron to stop investing in the facility. But he said he has his own doubts about the durability of the plant in the face of clear market challenges for biodiesel.
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