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The United States of America uses 160 billion gallons of petroleum a year for transportation. Of this nearly 85 billion gallons are from imported oil. The country has two significant goals; one to decrease its global emissions and second to reduce its need for foreign oil. These two stated goals mean the United States should invest heavily in the immediate development of bio diesel production.

The first argument against bio diesel is the taking of feed stock or food crops for the making of the bio diesel product. This argument is voided when the government recognizes the research documented by the University of New Hampshire on the ability to create nearly 5000 gallons of bio diesel from a single acre of algae ponds. While this sounds significant the creation of millions of acres of such ponds is the most expensive burden in developing a reliable and continual bio diesel source.

The target or goal of the American Bio Diesel Initiative should be to produce 60 billion gallons of the product annually. This would require the development of 2,000 package bio diesel refineries as they produce about 30 million gallons of the fuel each year. There can be multiple package plants at one location to help reduce the costs, but the burden is still going to reach $10 billion to create these plants. This is not the most significant cost, and done over 10 years it can be funded without borrowing money. The cost is merely $1 billion a year.

The significant burden would be the need for 6,000 acres of algae ponds for every single package plant. With 2,000 package plants it means 12 million acres of ponds and even over a period of 10 years this is going to cost upwards of $300 billion or $30 billion a year. While that number sounds staggering we should compare it too buying 85 billion gallons of foreign oil each year and recognize its largely a one time investment in an ongoing supply of affordable bio diesel.

The 10 year mission to create 12 million acres of ponds and 2,000 package refineries would not be complete without retrofitting fueling stations to handle bio diesel ($5 billion or $500 million a year) and helping auto makers get the public into diesel engine vehicles ($5 billion or $500 million a year in incentives and factory modification support). There would also be some extensive costs in getting waste water (necessary to assist in rapid algae growth) to the ponds from major metropolitan areas and farming outlets (expect $10 billion or $1 billion a year). The total cost is thus $33 billion a year.

Perhaps the most shocking number is the total cost of this enormous project. That cost is merely 21 cents a gallon applied to the cost of fuel today. The government could easily minimize the impact of such a burden and spread the costs out over 30 years using revenue from a smaller tax increase and bonds to pay for this investment. In this case the burden could be reduced to 9 cents a gallon for 30 years. Imagine 9 cents for a gallon of fuel and the United States reduces then need for 3/4Th's of the foreign oil it consumes and eliminates about 25% of the current emissions made by the American automobile. Let us not forget the massive number of jobs created in this endeavor, the opportunity to restore the American auto industry as a leader in the world market for diesel vehicles, and the probable reduction in gasoline (petroleum based) prices as the world demand is reduced by the largest single consumer.

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