I would be more interested using garbage and landfills as organic source for biofuels. It is produced constantly. There is an abundance of it. Nobody needs it, everybody is trying to get rid of it. You can use that and the CO2 from the air to convert it to biofuels… Less garbage, less CO2, less dangerous wastes and you also get biofuels. I even have the name for the company: GARBAGAS!

Update: Apparently there is already a company doing this. Not using biotech but old style chemical engineering techniques:

Update 2: Okay there is more news on this topic. More people are looking into alternative sources for biofuels. Instead of using/abusing corn more research is done on creating gasoline directly from other types of wastes. Check new here and here.

I think in the next 18 months there will be a very big change of direction in Biofuel research. Especially change in administration might change policy. I also expect big oil companies getting little more nervous about the new high throughput alternatives.

Sigma Factor: A sigma factor (σ factor) is a prokaryotic transcription initiation factor that must be part of RNA polymerase (RNAP) for specific binding to promoter sites on DNA. Different sigma factors are activated in response to different environmental conditions, as are listed below. Every molecule of RNA polymerase contains exactly one sigma factor subunit, which in the model bacterium Escherichia coli is one of those listed below. E.coli has at least eight sigma factors; the number of sigma factors varies between bacterial species. All sigma factors are distinguished by their characteristic molecular weights. For example, σ70 refers to the sigma factor with a molecular weight of 70 kDa.