The cost of biofuels....

So you thought that the price of gas was ridiculous when it hit $4 a gallon a couple of years ago. And you worry about the cost rising again. You also worry that enough time and money are not being invested by your government into alternative fuels and biofuels.

Guess again on all counts.

US Navy Tests Boat Powered by Algae

The U.S. Navy has developed what it calls a "mean, green riverine machine" -- a 49-foot camouflage gunboat capable of outracing destroyer fleets and powered in part by seaweed.

Swishing around in the vessel's fuel tank is a 50-50 mix of algae-based biofuel and diesel that powers high-performance vessels in a way the military says is indistinguishable from conventional fuels.

The boat is designed to be deployed in rivers and marshes and will eventually be used to guard oil installations in the Middle East, The Guardian reported. It's part of the Navy's first green strike force, a group of about 10 ships, submarines and planes that run on a mix of biofuels and nuclear power. They're expected to be developed by 2012 and deployed to the field by 2016.

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Last month, the U.S. Navy ordered more than 150,000 gallons of ship and jet fuel from Solazyme, a California company that produces biofuels from algae, The Associated Press reported.

But those fuels are expensive. Last year, the Navy spent $424 per gallon to buy 20,055 gallons of algae-based biofuel from another company. That was a world-record price for fuel at the time, the Marine Corps Times reported.

Yep! That wasn't a typo. The US Navy paid $424 a gallon for this wondrous biofuel to fuel their experiments last year And they bought 20,055 gallons of the bio-juice at that price.

That works out to a little over 8.5 million dollars of your money that was spent pursuing the concept of politically correct biofuels last year, just by the US Navy.

How much was spent by the other branches of the military and the other branches of government? Do we really want to know?