all alternatives should be investigated, however they should also be eligible for ALL the tax breaks/incentives and funding that the big oil companies still get even though they make BILLION$ every quarter.

More appropriate for the system and ecological balance, where recycling, appropriate for the environment and to humans, and of living in general .. To use solar energy, wind and tides and the fall of the water, for example .. That the use of bioenergy is limited to re-ecological balance.

I'm a pessimist. We will probably blow it, greedy American politicians will end up funding it, using American land to farm the algae and then ship all the oil to China and use the profits to buy real oil from the middle east.

Pessimism is for others. Not Americans. We did not become a great civilization by thinking that we could not achieve our goals. These green answers to our technological problems have been before us for decades. However big energy has always stomped it out so they can retain their mega profits. Now that the economy has changed we have an opportunity to move forward into the future with an entirely new way of harvesting and using energy - without waste and without the entanglement of the middle east as a source. There is simply no place for pessimism in this discussion unless you are on the far right and want the options to fail so that petroleum can remain as the fuel/drug we are forcibly addicted to.

Oceans and watersheds are loaded with fast growing algae. If it is technologically and economically feasible we should "go for it"! The more alternative sources of energy we can find and use the better off the country and world will be.

No. Biofuels are a waste of time, money, effort, and the energy consumed to generate the power they produce. Future generations less than a quarter millenia from now will think we were crude like the fossils we burn, polluting the planet. Fusion reactors will power Mother Earth.

greenlarry - well said! We have to look further and we have to be 'glass half fullers' rather than 'emptiers'. This opportunity has been before us in decades past. It's about time we act on the know-how and brilliance we have in science and technology. There isn't any room for pessimism!

After reading some of the comments it is apparent that there is a lack of understanding and knowledge about the use of algae in the production of energy. It would be helpful for MSNBC to produce a bullet point outline of what is being done, what has been accomplished thus far, the environmental advantages especially in the elimination of greenhouse gasses, and the financial upside to this technology. This is not the debacle created from ethanol. There is no competition to our agricultural production of food. The use of resources to produce a barrel will be in the $70-$75 range. Oil companies are investing in this technology. That should tell us all something!

We've been dependent on fossil fuels way too long. We should have been working to preserve our natural resources more readliy, and long before now!