The source for this info is the always-informative www.grist.org.
I diaried previously about algae-based biofuel production being tried by the New Belgium Brewing Company, responsible for fine brews such as Fat Tire. Today I came across a promising update:
The Potential Of Algae- still untapped, unexplored
There have been lots of justified complaints about the merits of soy/corn based ethanol and/or biofuels. Currently, we are doing little to process our waste vegetable oil into Biodiesel, or pursue many other low-hanging fruits on the alternative energy Tree, so one cannot view the efforts of the US as a whole to be either focused, productive, or progressive in terms of finding good alternative fuels.
[ Hopefully someone from Chevron who put up the Biofuels ad on dkos will jump into the comments section!]
I recently saw a nytimes.com story that featured a photo-op of Shrub on the White House Lawn plugging an electrical cord into a concept car. It was pretty funny, to say the least.
E85 is getting slightly more attention, no doubt in part to the efforts of people like Robert Redford (www.kicktheoilhabit.org) Again, though, there is little in the form of REAl public funding into R&D for this type of stuff, not counting the increased subsidies that are getting handed out to Midwest corn farmers.
I have nothing against corn farmers, but more articulate voices than I have probably already documented the swiftly-growing 'food vs fuel' debate that is arising. The "Tortilla Crisis" in Mexico right now is a valid demonstration of how good intentions for biofuels turn out to be short-sighted.
So clearly, it's time to move past corn-based ethanol.
Algae? Hemp? Who Knows, but in the meantime, I'll keep enjoying the photo-ops showing Mr. Naked Emperor himself touting alternative energy.