Iowa State University researchers have found a way to make algae produce 50 percent more biomass. Big deal, right? It’s green slime. And you’re paying for the project via grants from the U.S. departments of agriculture and energy.

But it might be a huge deal. According to environmental research group Pike Research, algae already yields “two to 20 times more oil per acre than leading oilseed crops. … On paper, algae could displace worldwide petroleum use altogether.”

However, the only way that could happen would be after lots of serious, time-consuming, expensive research.

This sort of thing might be at risk if the federal government ever gets down to serious budget-cutting. Especially if we eventually throw up our hands and just cut things across the board. Or even if we try to sort out what’s vital and what we can do without. Trying to make pond scum grow faster sounds like a project designed for outraged congressmen to rail against.

But no matter how dysfunctional our national budget may be now or might become, one principle will hold: You have to spend money to make money.

We would contend that spending money on developing alternative energy sources is one of the most important investments the United States can make.

Everyone wants to disentangle from the most troublesome of our crude oil sources. Some want to replace that oil with domestic oil only. That’s extremely short-term thinking and unimaginative to boot.

Oil isn’t the only ancient energy source begging to be used. Solyndra aside, we will find more and better ways to benefit from the free energy that pours down onto Earth. And one of the things sunlight does is help grow algae.

It doesn’t get any more basic than algae. But with a little research, it could become a game-changer.

Encourage your political leaders to cut wasteful spending. But don’t assume that they know which energy research is worth pursuing.