LA Times: Pond Scum, or a path toward energy independence?
Algae are in the news today. A few items down is word that some kinds of algae might (many maybes) be a cause for the dreadful disease ALS. But on the brighter side, the Los Angeles Times‘s Tiffany Hsu has today a feature on algae as potential source of abundant, affordable, and planet-friendly fuel. It’s in the business section with its focus on companies in and near the Times’s circulation area. One hot spot is north of San Diego in a neighborhood some call Biotech Beach, clustered near UC San Diego.
The story has plenty on the capital pouring in but is short on technical detail – and only declares that there is argument over algae’s promise but without much info that could help readers’ to a hunch how things might turn out in the next decade or two. Most important for reporters on the energy beat, however, the piece serves as a curtain raiser to a trade organization meeting in San Diego next month called the 2009 Algal Biomass Summit. Any writers with travel budgets and willing editors might book it. There one might find stories with plenty of detail.
Grist for the Mill: 2009 Algal Biomass Summit ;
Charlie Petit
