02/24/06 Harvesting Clean Energy conference

Harvesting Clean Energy Conference. I'm Bob Hoff. That story coming up. Washington Ag February 24, 2006 A former director of the CIA, James Woolsey is among those who will be speaking in Spokane next week at the 6th annual Harvesting Clean Energy Conference. Rhys Roth, spokesman for Climate Solutions, a non-profit organization in Olympia, explains the focus of the event which runs Monday and Tuesday at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park in Spokane. Roth: "And it brings together the energy and agricultural communities to focus on rural economic development opportunities, opportunities for the agricultural community to generate new revenue streams and new economic development through clean energy production including biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel, windpower, biogas digesters and a variety of other new energy sources." The just released Biomass Inventory from the Department of Ecology will be presented at the conference. Roth: "They did a whole analysis of different feedstocks for biomass energy production by county in Washington state which will give people a good picture for renewable energy production." That report done in collaboration with Washington State University, says nearly 50 percent of the energy that Washington residents now use could come from biomass, or organic waste that is available in the state. I'm Bob Hoff.