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Admitting he didn't have a "silver bullet" for stemming the accelerating rise in gas prices President Obama told an audience at the University of Miami "you've got a bunch of algae out here.  If we can figure out how to make energy out of that we'll be doing alright".  According to the White House Obama is commiting another $14 million of our tax dollars to the idea.  Currently the Department of Energy spends about $85 million on 30 research projects to develop algae biofuels.

The administration doesn't have any idea how long it will take for this algae-based biofuel to replace 17% of our dependence on the oil we import for transportation.  So far biofuels don't have the greatest track record... after years of production subsidies biofuels accounted for less than one-percent of the diesel fuel market as of 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration.  Ethanol, after tens of billions of $$$ in subsidies garnars five-percent by volume of vehicle consumption.  No telling how much of an effect the use of corn for the fuel supplement adds to our grocery bills.

In addition, Obama praised the record high domestic gas production being achieved right now and a new agreement with Mexico to drill in the Gulf.  Obama claims to have given beneficial support to domestic oil producers during his first term.  Oil industry leaders like Bruce Vincent of Swift Energy disagree: "These have been the most difficult three years from a policy standpoint that I've ever seen in my career.  They've done nothing but restrict access and delay permitting."  One has to wonder why we are signing agreements to drill for oil in our Gulf of Mexico with foreign, Mexican, oil companies - who have a much poorer environmental record on drilling safety. 

Let's not even mention our leaders rejecting a pipline from the Dakota's to refineries along the Gulf for transporting oil safely from a state which will be producing more oil than the state of Alaska by the end of the year.  That's right , more oil will be produced in North Dakota than Alaska by 2013 and rather than transporting it through the environmentally safest means possible - a pipeline, we will be trucking it one diesel tractor trailer at a time. 

Does any of this make sense?  Will the Obama Admisistration be happy before we are paying $10 to $15 a gallon, making "green energy" finally look like it makes economic sense?  Is this administration breaking our economy on purpose?  Does it want us all in the soup line and dependent on monthly government handouts?  Let me know what you think...

To see more on the Presidents speech at the University of Miami and using algae in your gas tank check out this article in Beltway Confidential