Fill 'Er Up With Starbucks -- Starbucks Oil

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. imports an average of 3.5 billion barrels of oil a year, with a 10-year price average of nearly $50 a barrel.

"Roughly speaking, this means imported crude oil is a $173 billion-a-year industry," Starbuck said. "If biocrude could be substituted for this quantity at the average 10-year real price, then the potential market for biocrude would be $173 billion annually."

Starbuck said producing biocrude in the U.S. would also provide a more stable and secure supply chain, as opposed to oil produced in other parts of the world and then shipped to the United States.

Another plus — unlike ethanol produced from grains, fuel produced from algae can be stored in the same tanks, shipped through the same pipelines and run in the same engines as traditional fuel without any necessary modifications. It also takes less energy to refine.

Starbuck said if New Mexico could capture just 35 percent of an algal fuel industry, the potential for job creation could be enormous. Some of her models put potential employment in algal fuel and algal fuel-related companies in the hundreds of thousands, with potential tax revenue in the billions. _Starbuck

Yep, there are plenty of obstacles standing in the way of a $173 billion a year Starbucks oil industry. But the human mind is nothing if not a problem-solving machine.

Here is an interesting article about a new form of catalyst that may expand profit margins for biofuels significantly.

Here is a look at venture capital investment in alternative energies and fuels. Although down from 2008, the year 2009 saw the second highest VC investments in alt.energy in history.

If the Obama - Pelosi reich ever lets up on its carbon hysteria, we are likely to see a return to exponential growth in investment in alt.energy. Why? Because a healthy economy needs a lot of energy -- not Obama style energy starvation. The healthier the economy, the more investment in the technologies of the future.

If you try forcing the economy to do things your way -- as in a Soviet command economy -- you will reap failure and misery.