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Stocks for New-Energy Investors

November 22, 2011
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Back before Memorial Day this year, gas prices appeared primed to churn ever higher and provide a hard hit to Americans’ wallets. At the start of May, the national average price of regular self-serve gasoline was $3.94 a gallon, according to AAA. But instead of climbing higher, gas prices eased to $3.60 a gallon in the height of summer–unexpected because normally that’s when we drive the most and a lot of refinery maintenance occurs, nudging up prices. Today the average per-gallon cost of gas is even lower, at $3.40 a gallon. It’s not cheap, but if you’re like me,...

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Toyota Prius, Tata Nano, Tesla Roadster and More

November 14, 2011
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Toyota Prius, Tata Nano, Tesla Roadster and More

These are exciting times for observers of the automobile industry … and for a small percentage of investors in it. The Toyota Prius has become the poster child of the hybrid car movement, leading a growing range of hybrid offerings–including the massive Cadillac Escalade– from nearly every manufacturer. Pure electric cars are just beginning to emerge, with the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf targeting the mass market and Tesla aiming higher. And as these technologies improve and gasoline and diesel-burning engines are gradually displaced from our roads, the result will be lower pollution, better health and lower oil prices,...

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A Stock for Your Inner Value Investor

October 21, 2011
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Despite my personal preference for growth stocks, there are times when an investor has to give a nod to reality. In a market like this, great setups for growth stocks are thin on the ground, and some of the old leaders are springing leaks left and right. So it’s a good time to get in touch with your inner value investor, and that’s what I’m doing with Tata Motors (TTM). Tata Motors is an Indian car and truck builder that manufactures an astonishing variety of vehicles, from the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest, fully enclosed four-passenger car, to Jaguars...

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What Happened to Solar?

October 7, 2011
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You’ve probably heard something about three well-known solar firms that declared bankruptcy this year. Here in Massachusetts, where I live, Evergreen Solar declared bankruptcy in August after finding itself nearly half a billion dollars in debt, less than three years after its stock traded over 100 a share. In Oregon and New York, recent Intel spin-off SpectraWatt also went under and its assets were auctioned off last week. Most infamously, California’s Solyndra shut down two years after receiving $528 million in Department of Energy loans for its California manufacturing facilities. So what happened to solar? In short: China. In...

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Will Congress Finally Kill Off Ethanol Subsidies?

August 25, 2011
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Will Congress Finally Kill Off Ethanol Subsidies?

Ethanol has been a fuel for automobiles from the start of the industry. In 1896, Henry Ford built his first car, the Quadricycle, to run on ethanol. His Model T, which revolutionized auto manufacturing when it rolled of the assembly line in 1908, was designed to run on ethanol or gasoline. Even as Ford continued to push for ethanol from corn as the logical fuel, lower priced gasoline won out. The oil shocks of the 1970s revived the idea of ethanol as an alternative fuel, and the corn-based version is now blended into 90% of the gas Americans use...

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