On 1 April 2008 Rudd met with then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in New York.

Michelle Grattan reported in The Age

Bill Clinton has invited him to address a climate change function he is involved in.

It is said this was the context of Rudd’s intriguing, softly spoken sentence to Hillary Clinton: "Let us know if we can help with anything."

Hillary's "help" was an Australian taxpayer cheque with a telephone number on it.

Need Cash Quick?  Create a company like Kev's Carbon Capture Institute

There was nothing in the budget that year for donations.  But that didn't stop Kevin 747 or his ego.  

On 19 September 2008 Rudd announced the creation of a new entity - the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute Limited.  He gave it a $400M budget.

On 25 September 2008 a fawning Tin Tin flew to New York to announce an MOU with the Clinton Foundation on Carbon Capture and Storage.

But GCCSI wouldn't be incorporated until the next year and with the Clintons, money talks, bullshit walks.  So The Rudd had the donation sent in a Commonwealth cheque - then when the GCCSI was incorporated in 2009 the donation was "novated" onto its books as if it had paid it in the first place.

This extract is from the 2009/10 FY Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute Ltd online report.

That earned Kevin

But back at the Clinton Ranch - Carbon Capture and Storage was less and less the flavour of the month.

John Podesta had been chasing Ira Magaziner for some time for a detailed report on the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI).

On 4 January 2012 it arrived -   diesel replacement proposal.docx26.89 KiBapplication/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document

Here are some extracts concerning Australia

Carbon Capture and Storage - CCS

CCS has stalled globally.....the incentive to explore carbon capture and storage has waned.

Nevertheless, projects with which we have been involved in Australia, the Netherlands and in the United States are moving forward.

CCI has two more years of funding from the Australian Institute to work on this issue. 

As at January 2012 - more than 2 years of funding to run from Rudd's GCCSI.

But the Dudd had backed the crappiest of crappy climate claptrap with his $400M orphan the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute - with our $10M in its pocket the Clinton Foundation was cutting it free.

Hang on a sec.  With Carbon Capture & Storage as well as Solar getting the chop - what about Kevin, his MOU and that $10M in funding?

The management at the Clinton Foundation aren't stupid.  They saw the risks.  So here's what Podesta, Lindsay et al decided.

What the good folk at the Clinton Foundation really thought of Rudd's idea

On Wednesday 14 March 2012 Amitabh Desai had a phone conversation with WJC.  Then another one with Ira.  Bill and Ira were not on the same page in most things - except for one. An advisory board for the Clinton Climate Initiative.

Cut out, laminate and keep just in case The Rudd ever comes to your house.

Ami thought the board would be useful because:

...we could stack it with smart climate folks who are friendly with WJC/us and thereby try to mitigate any wacky CCI ideas like carbon capture in Malaysia.   Or maybe I am just being overly optimistic.

One of the proudest achievements of The Rudd's $400M Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute as a result of the $10M donation to the Clinton Foundation:

By August WJC was getting active on the Stacked Board for Clinton Climate Rorts.

And here is the list of Friends of Bill available for Board-Stacking duties.

Just goes to show that even for people with wacky ideas, it pays to pay the Clintons.

And because too many times is never enough, here's The Rudd at the big kids G8 table announcing his Global Something or other, sorry me phone rang.