"The potential importance of algae in the generation of oil and hydrocarbons has been best illustrated by an estimate from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). It states that if all the petroleum fuel needed in the United States were substituted by algae fuel, it would require only about 40,000 square kilometers of land, less than 15 percent of the area where corn is harvested. Algae fuel has the potential to be the most cost-effective renewable alternative energy source on the planet." Maryland is about 32,000 square km, so if every the government utilized just 1000 square km of otherwise barren land in each state, we could produce 125% of our annual fuel consumption in a completely green method and solve the energy crisis.