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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Russian bots are impersonating us. Trump and his allies want to silence us. AI wants to (and does!) steal our content. The list goes on. But with 50 years of experience, we know we were built for this moment: We’re ready to keep diving deep and uncovering the truth, then getting that to you right here, completely accessible and never behind a paywall.

While our work is free to read, watch, and listen to online, it’s incredibly costly to make. Court documents, travel, research: It all adds up. Because we’re a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on reader support to fund our investigations. Will you stand with us in these extraordinary times, as headlines clamour for our attention and disinformation is rampant? We can’t get the truth out without you.

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