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 need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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