The US and Australia talking about clean coal technology? This won’t be the first time the two nations have broached the subject. Nearly a year ago, Prime Minister Rudd met with President Obama at the White House to discuss strategies for combating climate change, where the American president indicated that the U.S. would partner with Australia and other nations in the Australian initiative for a global carbon capture and storage institute.
Since that time, Wyo. Gov. David Freudenthal has been working with a task force at the president’s behest to deliver a federal strategy on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology by August. The governor also recognizes the value of collaborating with Australia on commercial-scale CCS.
In fact, during a recent trip to Brisbane, the Trading Room reports that the governor endorsed a U.S-Australia partnership saying, “What we are really looking for are some opportunities for cooperation and collaboration with the university sector, the government sector and the private sector,” adding that the public needs to acknowledge that it doesn’t matter whether large-scale deployment is “figured out in Wyoming or Queensland or wherever, somebody’s got to figure it out and the technologies need to be broadly available.”
The two states—American and Australian, respectively—are currently working on a clean coal plant, which the Trading Room notes has been shortlisted for the federal government’s CCS flagship program.
With coal providing around 80 percent of Australia’s electricity, the country certainly understands the effect of this abundant resource on its jobs, energy security and overall livelihood—factors with which the U.S. can identify as well.
We’re looking forward to hearing what comes out of any meetings—and will be sure to post the takeaways here on Behind the Plug.
