Green Leaf Report

Companies around the world are evaluating various types of plants as a possible source for fuel.  Algae has always been one of my favorites; the plant grows anywhere we don’t want it, thus is both plentiful and easy to acquire.  But as I read more about companies working on the production of algae, I get confused.  Why produce this plant that is already so plentiful- can’t we harvest from areas of overproduction in the wild?

Specifically, I’m thinking of the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico as a starting point. This Dead Zone has become the size of New Jersey, and is created by fertilizer and other pollutant runoff into the Mississippi River.  The pollution is carried out to the Gulf and causes an explosive growth of algae, that then dies, sinks, absorbs oxygen and creates an environment where other lifeforms cannot survive.

So before we start creating algae in little man-made ponds or processing areas, why not harvest the algae that our polluting lifestyles are creating for free?  Certainly there is cost associated with harvesting a plant out in the open water, but there was cost also associated with pulling up oil from underneath the Gulf, and companies still managed to put in huge, expensive oil platforms to extract that oil.  Maybe we can use those same oil rigs as starting locations to harvest the algae for fuel, and leave the old, nonrenewable oil where it lies, under the Gulf.