The video above is an interview done in May with Walter Copan, chief technology officer of Clean Diesel Technologies (ticker: CDTI), by thestreet.com. Autobloggreen is not a stock tip or investing website but we wanted to show you what the stock market thinks about green, automotive companies. In the above video, Walter is asked if clean diesel will catch on in America and can the technology take on hybrids. Walter thinks clean diesels have potential because the technology has developed and new cars are being released.

Below the fold is a video done in a May episode of Forbes on Fox with Jeff Siegel and includes two interesting ethanol stocks. The first company is SunOpta (ticker: STKL), which is actually a food company but Jeff says they have plans to go into cellulosic ethanol and even want to built a plant. The second company is Pacific Ethanol (ticker: PEIX) which Jeff says is embracing regional production and are building ethanol plants in California. Bill Gates is about to sell his 21 percent stake in Pacific Ethanol.

Nobel peace prize Al Gore is getting in on sustainable investing, so don't be surprised to see a few more articles from AutoblogGreen with stock tickers.

Related:

• Stock analysts say we could be in an "ethanol bubble"
• Motley Fool sez AltairNano stock "missed the mark"

[Source: YouTube, Google Video]

There are over 300,000 flex-fuel cars in California, yet just one E85 fueling station. Doesn't make much sense, does it? Moving to address the imbalance, the Department of Energy has granted funding to a group that includes CALSTART, GM, Pacific Ethanol and United Oil among others to begin the construction of an ethanol infrastructure in the Golden State.

The press release doesn't reveal how much funding is available, however, the initial round will pay for a portion of the construction of ten E85 pumps at existing gas stations owned by United Oil in the Los Angeles area. Four more pumps will be installed along Highway 101 from Ventura to San Luis Obispo while the last will be installed in San Joaquin Valley.

Fuel for the pumps will be produced in California by Pacific Ethanol whose headquarters are located in Madera, CA. There are currently three ethanol plants in the state with four more on the way. By the end of 2008, California's ethanol production is projected to reach 400 million gallons per year which should provide enough ethanol to meet demand from the new E85 pumps.

Getting a foothold in California is a smart move for almost any aspect of the auto industry as the state contains 10 percent of the nation's vehicles. We'll certainly be keeping a close watch to see just how the ethanol network pans out in a coastal state.

[Source: CALSTART]

Chart: Google Finance / VeraSun Energy Corporation (NYSE: VSE)

Apparently, all's not well in the market for the booming ethanol industry. After showing a strong performance in the second quarter, ethanol producer companies' stock prices slid a considerable amount during the third quarter. According to a report produced by analyst Friedman Billings Ramsey, ethanol stocks fell in correlation with ethanol market prices, 41 and 55 percent, respectively. Pacific Ethanol and VeraSun Energy sank 39 percent, Andersons fell 18 percent while Archer Daniels Midland lost just 8 percent.

The poor performance even kept some ethanol producers out of the market for the time being. Hawkeye Holdings, for instance, postponed their initial public offering citing unfavorable market conditions.

Investors are now keeping a keen eye on quarterly earnings announcements. ADM will release their earnings on October 31, VeraSun on November 7, Andersons on November 11 and Pacific Ethanol will announce their quarterly earnings on November 15.

[Source: Associated Press via Houston Chronicle]

Sometimes I imagine the world really looks and acts like a computer strategy game. You know, like Civ or Age of Empires or something like that, where you collect your resources and build your factories and make your units. The real world (or, as some like to call it, First Life) is more complicated, but in some aspects the analogy holds.

Take the announcement from Pacific Ethanol that their first finished ethanol plant will start producing ethanol next week. The plant, located in Madera, California, should be running at full speed (producing enough to make 35 million gallons a year) by mid-November. Upon completing this project, can't you just imagine a game window popping up and your digital economic advisor telling you that your cornfields are now worth +1?

Related:

• Pacific Ethanol's 2Q results and details on new ethanol production projects
• Pacific Ethanol stocks sale could be signs of trouble ahead

[Source: Pacific Ethanol, Inc.]

Want (even more) proof that ethanol is on the rise? Pacific Ethanol would like to show you that its profits in the second quarter of 2006 (net sales of $46.5 million) were about double those of the second quarter of 2005 ($22.8 million). Interestingly, the amazing increase in profits came with only a 27 percent increase in gallons of ethanol sold. (Q2 2005 was 15.6 million, Q2 2006 was 19.8 million). The company's average ethanol price rose by 99 cents per gallon in that time period. All this good news for the company means more ethanol plants. Pacific Ethanol will build three new plants in two Western states and will have a total annual production capacity of 220 million gallons by the middle of 2008.

Related:

• Pacific Ethanol stocks sale could be signs of trouble ahead
• Oregon next in line for massive ethanol production facility

[Source: Pacific Ethanol, Inc.]

Pacific Ethanol, a company we're mentioned before because they're building giant ethanol plants around the western side of the United States, sold on Friday five and a half million shares of its stock to private investors for about $5 less each than the $31.52 stocks were valued at Thursday. The company also sold the rights to buy almost three million shares at $31.55 in six months. The stock market didn't like this at all on Friday and the price of the shares dropped $3.11 that day. The sale of stock to private investors like this is called, interestingly, a PIPE deal, which stands for Private Investment in Public Equity. Seeking Alpha has a detailed report on the sale, and says, "The CEO/CFO should be fired for even thinking about using a PIPE deal to raise money. PIPE deals have a well deserved reputation for being very dilutive and are also a sign that the company is desperate for cash. As such they tend to cause a rapid decline in the stock price - much worse than that caused by announcing a secondary public offering."

The article also mentions three officials in the company resigned at the end of April and explains further why all of this may mean that Pacific Ethanol could be in trouble.

[Source: Seeking Alpha]

Ethanol continues its impressive expansion throughout the United States, with construction of a new 35-million-gallons-a-year production plant in Port of Morrow, Oregon recently announced by Pacific Ethanol, Inc. Pacific Ethanol, whose mission is to "become the West Coast's leading marketer and producer of renewable fuels", will start construction of the plant in about 30 days and expects to start churning out ethanol a year later. The plant is one of five the company plans on operating in the West by the end of 2008. Pacific Ethanol was founded in 2003 and is currently building an ethanol plant in Madera County, CA. The company's website has a slideshow of that plant's construction.

[Source: BizJournals.com]