There is much talk about green travel and going green in the news lately because saving the planet and our environment is important even in this downward economy.  There are many ways to join in saving the planet and becoming earth friendly every day doing little things.  As an individual, a person could recycle glass bottles and aluminum cans, sometimes for money. Additionally, an individual could reuse items like clothing or books by shopping at a thrift store or donating sweaters, jeans, slacks, blouses, coats, hats, scarves, gloves, books, electronics and computers and various household items to a thrift store where they will be purchased by others instead of ending up in a landfill.

Major corporations are also going green by setting up recycling bins for paper, aluminum cans and glass bottles.  They have reduced their paper use tremendously by sharing files online rather than printing them out and using videoconferencing instead of having people fly across country for face-to-face business meetings.  However, when a person does need to fly across country for a face-to-face business meeting, many companies are insisting their employees use hybrid rental cars instead of regular gas guzzling rental cars to get around town in addition to staying in green hotels to help reduce their carbon footprint.

There are even green airlines in the news.  Continental Airlines made their first test run in early January of a biofuel powered flight of a US commercial airliner.  The flight took place in Houston and contained a special fuel blend of jatropha and algae plants.  These are second-generation sustainable fuel sources that are much more viable than the other commonly used agricultural sources that contain soy or corn-based ethanols.

The first generation agricultural-based ethanols that contain corn or soy do more damage to the plants by having a major impact on the food crops and water sources.  These biofuels lead to deforestation and they can actually lead to an increase in CO2 in the atmosphere.  Biofuel made with algae does none of this.  In fact, algae can be grown with up to 90% less water than traditional agricultural supplies and it does not compete with agricultural lands so it will not interfere with food production.

So, since algae-based biofuel is so great, why is it not widely used as fuel for automobiles and jet planes?  The reason is simple. Soybean and corn lobbyists have been firmly planted in Washington for many decades, so they have backing. Algae is such a new technology it simply has not received the funding it needs to continue growing.

Webheads everywhere have been blogging about this algae-based biofuel and the new President’s commitment to helping the environment.  There are already several companies poised to make the algae-based biofuel for airlines and everyday ordinary people’s cars.