Instead of going after the oil that is currently sitting under land locked up by the federal government, President Obama is looking to pond scum, also known as algae.
While it sounds bizarre and strange, Forbes says the Administration has already allocated millions for a Florida biofuels company that is working on a refinery for algae.
Forbes adds:
In remarks at the University of Miami, Obama highlighted two domestic energy sources more than any other—natural gas and algae. After the speech, the Administration announced $30 million in grants to develop natural gas as a vehicle fuel, $14 million for algae.
“We’re making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel that’s actually made from a plant-like substance — algae,” Obama said in Miami. ” You’ve got a bunch of algae out here, right? If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we’ll be doing all right.”
But the final product is far from ready, and Americans are suffering from high gas prices today. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich mocked the plan as "weird" while speaking to an Idaho audience earlier in the week, adding that such a plan would take "20, 30, 40 years" to get "up to scale," assuming it works at all.
ABC News added:
Gingrich said that while he is a “big fan” of science, Obama’s biofuels endeavor could be like the bankrupt Solyndra project. “You know the President had this magnificent solar power investment and took 500 something-million of your money, (he) visited the plant because it was the plant of the future,” Gingrich said. “I suspect in the next few weeks we’ll see him at some algae plant.”
Obama, who asserts that 17 percent of what America currently imports could be replaced with biofuels based on algae, mocked the idea of drilling for oil in his weekly address to America.
But the country cannot wait four decades for Obama's "pond scum" petroleum to become reality.
As Mark Whittington notes at Yahoo, Obama would be taken far more seriously if he had approved the Keystone XL pipeline. Whittington adds:
Mind, if Obama had approved the Keystone XL pipeline and was opening up America's vast oil and gas reserves for production, his mention of biofuel would not have been so remarkable. Of course research and development of alternative energy would be a good part of any sensible energy policy.
But as laugh inducing as green slime gas is, there is a serious side to Obama's fixation on alternative energy to the exclusion of and not along with more conventional energy sources. Everyone who has to put gas in their cars or pay an energy bill every month knows this. We don't have time to wait for algae biofuel. The energy crisis is almost upon us now.
As it is, Gingrich's moon base could become reality long before Obama's "pond scum" petroleum. While the idea is interesting, Obama would have far more credibility if he was serious about going after all sources of energy. As it is, he looks like a small and petty politician beholden to environmental extremists when he mocks the one proven technology that actually does produce oil.
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