Earlier this week, I met in Seoul with civil society fighting the Korus FTA. They are generally opposed to reopening negotiations at this point, but if they do, they hope to have the intellectual property and access to medicines provisions reopened. Continue Reading
According to this GQ story, the H-Prize (HR 632, 110th Congress) passed the House today by a vote of 408 to 8.
Every two years, H-Prizes worth $1 million would be given in four categories: production, storage, distribution and utilization. One $4 million prize would be awarded for hydrogen vehicles. At the end of 10 years, a $10 million grand prize would be given for a “transformational advance in hydrogen energy technology.”
I think these are two positive steps for Bush. This was my take on this in the Huffington Post on the Zoellick pick for the World Bank. Bush could have done worse (and did with Wolfowitz). Continue Reading
On May 30, KEI hosted a brown bag lunch discussion on guidelines for the new U.S. trade policy recently released by the Congressional Ways and Means Committee and the Bush Administration. The event began with brief statements by panelists Fabiana… Continue Reading
According to this May 23 press release, the bill creating the H-Prize Act unanimously passed the House Committee on Science and Technology. The bill creates prizes for scientific breakthroughs in the use of hydrogen as an energy source for transportation.
I have written a KEI Research note about Compulsory licensing of copyright under Article 44.2 of the TRIPS, in light of eBay, which is now on the web here.
Rep Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) has introduced a bill that includes a section requiring the Secretary of Energy to enter into an arrangement with the National Academies of Sciences to evaluate the feasibility of prizes to promote the development of farms that are net producers of both food and energy.
110th CONGRESS,1st Session H. R. 80
This prize program is part of S. 280, a bill to address global warming. The high powered sponsors include Senators Lieberman, Carper, Clinton, Coleman, Collins, Durbin, Lincoln, McCain, Nelson, Obama and Snow.
This is a fairly significant prize program. It seems as though a single award can exceed $100 million, with the approval of the Secretary of Energy.
110th CONGRESS, 1st Session, S. 280
In April 2007, Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Domenici (R-MM), Dorgan (D-SD), Lugar (R-IN), Akaka (D-HI), Murkowski (R-AK) and Craig (R-ID) introduced legislation dealing with energy efficiency. One section of the bill requires the United States Treasury to create a Bright Light Tomorrow permanent fund, without a fiscal year limitation, to finance prizes for energy efficient lamps. There are three specific prizes.