Is Algae Coming to a Gas Pump Near You?

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Republicans have so many dumb inside jokes and weird paranoid theories that it’s hard to keep track of them. There’s the teleprompter jokes, a never-ending source of inane merriment. There’s the dustup over dust. Lately there’s been some weird uproar over kids working on family farms. And of course, there’s Newt Gingrich mocking President Obama’s idea of getting fuel from algae.

There aren’t enough hours in the day to look into all this stuff. I mean, 90% of these things turn out to be a crock, so the ROI on devoting time to checking them out is pretty low. In particular, I’ve just been too lazy to check into the whole algae thing. I mean, it’s not as if biofuels in general are some kind of outlandish science fiction pipe dream, but algae? Beats me.

Luckily, our own James West has a quick five-minute video that will get you up to speed. Aside from learning that Australians apparently pronouce algae with a hard g, I also now know whether algae is coming to a gas pump near you anytime soon. Click the link and you’ll know too.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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