Following close on the heels of the U.S. Department of Energy’s latest round of algae funding awards, President Trump Friday signed into law a Fiscal Year 2019 spending bill providing an additional $44 million in FY2019 for algae and carbon utilization research — the highest funding level for algae research since the 2009 Recovery Act. The funding includes $32 million for the Advanced Algal Systems program under DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and $12 million for the Carbon Use and Reuse program under DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy. Both are increases of $2 million over FY2018 levels.
The continued growth in federal algae funding is a testimony to the effectiveness of ABO’s ongoing work to educate policy makers on the promise of algae as a platform for carbon mitigation and sustainable production of everything from food and feed to biofuels and biomaterials; to the growing influence of the Congressional Algae Caucus, under the leadership of Representatives Scott Peters of California, Darin LaHood of Illinois, Derek Kilmer of Washington, and Andy Biggs of Arizona; and to our Senate champions, including Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Thank you to all of our Champions of Algae!