In case you missed it in Terra Rossa’s Energy Debate Watch, The New York Times had a fascinating article last month about the efforts of two scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to turn carbon dioxide into gasoline – a project they call “Green Freedom.”
If this process sounds a little confusing (or even far-fetched) to you, you’re not alone – it did to me, too! But, as detailed in the article, it is based on sound scientific principles, and much of the technology involved has already been developed for other purposes. According to Jeffrey Martin, one of the scientists involved in the project, “Everything in the concept has been built, is operating, or has a close cousin that is operating.”
As promising as this idea is, particularly when it comes to powering cars and airplanes, it is going to take time and money to develop. But this is exactly the type of project that we here at Terra Rossa believe a market-based carbon cap can help stimulate. As the cap creates a market for carbon emissions, companies looking for a competitive edge will increase their investments in alternative energy technologies.
We’ve already discussed how investments in wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear alternatives have started to increase as industries anticipate the implementation of some sort of cap-and-trade system. I’d like to see some big corporate dollars support the Green Freedom project, as well. Knowing the power of the free market, I wouldn’t be surprised if we achieved something I never would have thought possible: gasoline as an alternative energy!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Alternative Energy Technology, Feed Widget, Oil and Gas . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
