Will the US start state funded algae research again, its more than possible, says one person active in the past.
But Eric Jarvis, an NREL scientist, quoted in Gregoire's CleanTech Blog says that enough has changed that NREL researchers expect to restart the program within the next six months to a year.
When the program was canceled in 1996, oil prices were relatively low. Today's higher oil prices will make it easier for algae to compete. Still, Jarvis cautions that
"you have to be careful because there's a lot of hype out there right now."
He's right about that, but algae could be useful, if they can be persuaded to grow fast enough and consume enough carbon dioxide.