The Department of Public Works bought Ford Fusion hybrids after the purchase of Toyota's a few years ago stirred controversy.

The alternative fuel may soon generate more cash for local firms because it's much cheaper than gasoline.

The Office of Energy Development is dispensing grants of up to $500,000 to help private- and public-sector organizations convert their vehicles.

Current infrastructure for delivering the alternative fuel isn't adequate to use all that the federal government says must be produced.

Xylogenics claims its yeast strain, developed at the Indiana University School of Medicine, can increase yields and lower costs of producing corn ethanol.

National Biofuels Distribution LLC, a subsidiary of Carmel-based Telamon Corp., signs two distribution contracts to expand its distribution reach. The company began marketing its ethanol-based racing fuel, Ignite, about a year ago.

City will be among first to conduct demonstration of several plug-in electric vehicles prior to their market launch next year.

Converting the U.S. trucking industry to natural gas will benefit manufacturers including Columbus-based Cummins Inc., T. Boone Pickens says.

Carmel-based Telamon Corp. rose to become one of the largest minority-owned businesses in the area largely by serving telecommunications giants. Now it is veering off its traditional course to supply racing teams with an ethanol-based fuel made from Indiana corn.

EnerDel, an Indianapolis-based producer of automotive lithium-ion batteries, has named a new president, the company announced today.

Carbon Motors yesterday filed for a $310 million federal loan to help it begin producing high-tech police cars in Connersville.

EnerDel, an Indianapolis-based producer of automotive lithium-ion batteries, will receive $118.5 million in a matching grant from the federal government.

Hoping to spur alternative vehicles, lawmakers want to double the size of tax breaks on cars that run on natural gas. That could be good news for Indiana, where Honda Motor Corp. produces the natural-gas-powered Civic GX in Greensburg.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and other city officials will travel to Brazil in May to explore renewable-energy production, in hopes of making the city a leader in the technology.

Stellarwind is believed to be the first algae-oil company in Indiana and among dozens of others around the country at the forefront of what's being called the third wave of biofuels production.

At Purdue University, the quest for a new missile and spacecraft fuel has brought together an oil-and-vinegar mix of rocket scientists and food scientists.

A firm hatched out of the Indiana University School of Medicine has raised $150,000 toward bringing to market yeasts that could be a cure for one of the biggest bioengineering challenges of the day.

A state fund supporting an 18-cent-a-gallon tax credit for gas stations selling E85 ethanol was exhausted in the first three months of the state's new fiscal year.

Indianapolis-based engineering and consulting giant RW Armstrong has become lead investor in an upstart ethanol firm that would apply novel technology to make the automotive fuel without using corn as the key ingredient. It would be the first big commercial plant in Indiana to make the alcohol fuel with so-called cellulosic material--the holy grail, of sorts, in the ethanol industry.

A former Silicon Valley sales executive and a Cincinnati investment manager have formed a venture fund here that's trying to raise $100 million to invest in the new darlings of the investment world: clean technology firms. Clean Wave Ventures founders Scott Prince and Rick Kieser are banking on soaring energy costs attracting investors to the risky but potentially lucrative realm of alternative energy and transportation and related fields.

The list of potential Hoosier ethanol plants is nothing short of astounding for a state that had just one ethanol-fuel distillery as recently as 2005. Beyond the six ethanol plants now operating and six others under construction, Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt counts 27 others under consideration for Indiana.