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Maynard says:

I haven’t listened to Obama’s speech, but I don’t leap to condemn the concept of energy from algae. The general idea of ethanol is to turn plants into fuel; preferably plants that grow naturally and profusely without much effort or attention. We convert corn to ethanol because we’re good at it and have an infrastructure; the problem is that the effort involved in growing and processing the corn leaves us with little if any energy gain. There have been efforts to convert wood and non-foods into ethanol; thus far these have proved to be the usual wasteful boondoggles and payoffs to cronies (for example, the Range Fuels plant in Georgia went broke after absorbing more than $150 million of subsidies, having produced nothing).

I’m not saying Obama will get us any closer to algae fuel; I’m sure he’ll continue to squander and waste, because that’s all he’s good for. But the idea itself has great potential, so don’t let the jackass at the helm preclude reasonable discussion. The oceans are huge and alive; why not harvest the biomass for fuel? All we need is an infrastructure and an efficient process. It’s not going to happen soon, and Obama’s not going to help it in any practical way. However it’s a thing that may eventually come to pass, if only we look at it as a quest to build a profitable enterprise instead of yet another opportunity to suckle at Uncle Sam’s endless teat.