Subsidies for Cooking Oil

Subsidies for Cooking Oil - WSJ:
"How many millions of taxpayer dollars does it take to create a new cooking oil?
Government-backed Solazyme is among the companies working to provide the answer.
After gorging on federal grants to make fuels that car drivers don’t want, alternative-energy companies are now trying to feed their creations to American consumers.
Bon appetit!
The Journal reports that Solazyme, which in 2009 received more than $20 million in grants to build a refinery for automotive fuel, is now selling an algae-derived oil for cooking.
Readers may recall Amyris as one of the “green tech” darlings backed by Al Gore and his colleagues at Kleiner Perkins that was destined to revolutionize the energy economy.
Now it’s focusing on facial moisturizers and cosmetics.
But only after blowing nearly $25 million from an Energy Department grant on a biofuels demonstration project.
Sapphire Energy received more than $100 million from the Obama Administration, “but it decided over the past two years to shift its focus toward nutritional supplements like Omega-3, a fatty acid,” notes the Journal.
Along with its foray into cooking oil, Solazyme is also offering “whole algae flour,” which is intended to replace ingredients like butter and eggs in traditional recipes.
We’re reminded of the “Saturday Night Live” skit about the dessert topping that doubled as a floor wax.
If the former alt-energy crowd can make it in the wilds of the real economy, so much the better.
We’d be even more encouraged if Washington would cut off the green subsidies and leave venture capital to people investing their own money."