“Be Part of Change, or Be Left Behind”, Beattie Challenges Australia on Biofuels

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Australia, former Queensland premier Peter Beattie issued a stark challenge to Australia on biofuels, at the opening of the Australian Alternative Fuels Summit in Brisbane.

“As President Obama has said, ‘the country that leads on clean energy, will lead the global economy in the 21st century.’ We have to be part of this change, or we will be left behind. Anyone who has a look will know that, in the future, 50 percent of all new jobs will be knowledge-based. We can’t afford to not be part of the technology development process, and give half the jobs away. If we do that, we’ll be a just a beach, though a beautiful one. R&D is our future. If you’ve got just 22 million people, which is less than some cities in China, or less than Southern California, you’ve got to use your brains.”

...Sir Richard Branson, addressing the delegates by video, said that “we are committed to taking the profits from our dirtier technologies and investing them in developing clean fuels, and said that he hopes that the company could be operating on isobutanol or algae-based fuels in 4-5 years time.

...(Former Queensland premier Peter) Beattie referred to the “American obsession with energy independence and said “The US Navy will have to find eight major suppliers around the world [for its Green Strike Force]” and we are here in a geographic sector in the South Pacific all by ourselves. We can be a major supplier to the Green Fleet, which is scheduled to be fully operational by 2016.” READ MORE