America's energy policy dilemma
David Shukman
David Shukman gets knee-deep in an algae-filled pond to find out how these swampy waters could transform the oil industry
Stand in the warm sunshine of an autumn morning near Houston, Texas, watching an immense rig towering over a new oil well, and the future of the fuel that made this state rich looks rosy.
With me is a third-generation oil man, "Tad" Mayfield, a spokesman for Texan producers. He doubts that climate change is man-made and is campaigning hard against measures planned in Congress to limit greenhouse gases.
"The question is how much difference does CO2 really make in our atmosphere? That question should be debated," he says.
"There are a lot of climate drivers. You can see the sun shining on my face right now, you know the sun is obviously one of the biggest climate drivers."
Mr Mayfield's views put him at odds with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose Fourth Assessment Report concluded it was more than 90% likely that humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases were responsible for modern-day climate change.
Conventional oil has an impressive production record
Yet picture a parallel scene nearly 1,500 miles away, where bubbles are rising through lurid green tubes of algae in a laboratory near San Diego, southern California.
Explaining his research is Jason Pyle, chief executive officer of Sapphire Energy, a firm pushing to develop "green crude oil".
To support a new bill on climate change, he sent a car powered by an algae blend all the way to Congress.
