I say drill here drill now and stop the dependency on foreign oil. In the process we have to get the government out of the way and allow big business to fail or strive as the market dictates. stop all bailouts and any other form of government financing that amounts to the government choosing who will strive. Get the government out of our schools and bring it back to the local level also. We also need to get back to a solid money controlled by the people rather than a centralized private out for profit banking system. We need to take the power away from the government and give it back to the people where it belongs
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What to Do With All That Carbon
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We need to do more, however. Despite all this activity, it is clear that CCS is not yet a mature commercial technology. While there are a number of international bodies with important CCS programs, no agency has the resources to drive CCS to the next stage. We don't need to duplicate, or merely coordinate, the existing efforts: we need to lift them to the next level.
That is why the Australian government has proposed a Global CCS Institute, and has offered up to $65 million per year to fund its establishment and operation. And we will invest in commercial-scale demonstration projects, in partnership with state governments and industry, in Australia.
The institute will be a global "go to" place for researchers, industry and governments with an interest in developing and investing in large-scale projects.
CCS technology is so critical a means of responding to climate-change demands that it should, in many respects, be treated as a global public good. That means that while companies and researchers will apply normal commercial intellectual-property rights to particular technologies, there are many developments that should be shared. It is in the interests of both industry and government to shorten the CCS learning curve.
We have begun preliminary testing on some government and organizational arrangements that will be needed to deliver on the objectives of the institute. There will be further consultations with interested parties in 2008, and we aim to open the institute in early 2009. James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank, has agreed to assist us in defining the governance and programs of the institute.
While the institute's headquarters would be in Australia, its activities and its people are likely to be distributed across the world. In my address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2008, I called on all governments and corporations of good will to participate in this Global CCS Institute.
Capturing and burying carbon will not solve the world's climate problem. But the abundance and low cost of coal and gas around the world make this technology critical.
The world needs to know, sooner rather than later, whether CCS technology can live up to its potential.
Rudd is prime minister of Australia.
© 2008
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