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October 01, 2007 | Jim Lane | Comments 2

US Department of Energy resumes work on algae-based biodiesel

The U.S. Department of Energy is resuming work on algae-based biodiesel. The National Bioenergy Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden is said to be nearing a cooperative research and development agreement.

Numerous algae ventures have been in the news lately, with ventures such as PetroSun, Solazyme, Valcent and GreenFuel working on ventures which are primarily located in Arizona and Georgia.

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Filed Under: PolicyResearch

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    1. The National Renewable Energy Lab is pushing genetically modified algae. This marketing campaign has been turned up in recent months in order to pursue Congressional appropriations. NREL has failed to inform Congress of the risks of GMO algae and failed to inform algae stakeholders of the potential fallout of destroying public support for algae by poisoning this technology with GMO.

    2. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is advocating genetic modification of algae (GMO). GMO algae has significant environmental, safety and economic risks which have not been adaquately addressed. The recent report NREL prepared on algae for Congress fails to identify these risks and fails to inform Congress of the damage to the renewable biofuels business if the public is deceived into thinking that GMO is required to make algae a viable biomass feedstock. NREL has an additional conflict of interest in its agreement with Chevron to pursue GMO algae.

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