Dirty coal goes clean in the budget

It's just over a week since the first budget for the new Australian Government was announced and I must say that the reaction of many small business owners is one of disappointment.  In terms of the renewable industry, we took several steps back with an introduction of an industry crippling means test for eligibility for the Solar PV rebate.  Programs such as the Building Entrepreneurship in Small Business will not be funded in the short term and there appears to be little to encourage entrepreneurship which will drive the changes our society desperately needs.  

There was, however, big dollars for the development of "clean coal technology", and certainly we need to look for this as part of the mix of solutions.  But like oil and gas, coal is an industry in it's sunset era - these energy sources use technologies that served us well, but now belong to the industrial era, not the new energy era that is emerging.  And we could use the high export  profits from these  industries to position Australia for the future.  In my opinion,  the development of sustainable and renewable energy sources and production systems that undercut fossil fuel energy, are this future.  The same amount of money spent instead on new emerging industries such as Geothermal or Wave energy development or Carbon Capture using the Agrichar processes would position our country as a leader in CleanTech  industries, not one hanging on to old habits with band-aid solutions.   

In pre-industrial societies, there was a huge debate about slavery and the feudal system, which provided the energy sources  at that time.  We now view these as totally unacceptable for modern society, and I believe that in 100 years, we will view fossil fuel use with equal disdain.  We will also be proud of those leaders who took the initiative and were the ones who set the course (albeit it painful) for a future using renewable energy sources.