Staff ReportFELLSMERE — Governor Charlie Crist spent Tuesday afternoon touring the PetroAlgae farm west of Fellsmere. This is at least the second time that a high-ranking elected government official has visited the facility. Congressman Bill Posey visited the farm earlier this summer. Crist is running for a US Senate seat in the 2010 election.Melbourne-based PetroAlgae was founded in 2006 to develop and license commercial micro-crop technology systems that enable production of green diesel using rapid-growth, fuel-producing organisms such as algae. In addition to being heavy consumers of carbon dioxide, micro-crops of algae are viewed as a more commercially and environmentally promising fuel source than macro-crops such as corn and soybeans, which take longer to grow and demand greater use of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides.
