New Energy Summit

NATIONAL CLEAN ENERGY PROJECT: BUILDING THE NEW ECONOMY WEBCAST INFORMATION

Reid, Podesta, Pickens, Bill Clinton, Gore, Pelosi to Lead and Participate in this Groundbreaking Summit

WHO: The Center for American Progress Action Fund will host an energy summit entitled “National Clean Energy Project: Building the New Economy” on Monday, February 23, 2009 in Washington, DC. Center for American Progress Action Fund President John Podesta will convene the session. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a longtime champion of building a clean energy economy, is honorary chair. Confirmed panelists include President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Climate Czar Carol Browner and T.
Boone Pickens.

WHAT: The forum will focus on modernizing and expanding the electricity grid, integrating energy efficiency and distributed generation into operation and regulation, rapidly increasing transmission capacity for renewable energy and reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil by examining short- and long term solutions to replace foreign oil with domestic resources to fuel vehicles and trucks, including natural gas.

WHERE: The webcast will be available live on several sites:

www.nationalcleanenergyproject.org
www.pickensplan.com/summit/
www.americanprogressaction.org

RSVP to Emily Parker at eparker@sloanepr.com

WHEN: Monday, February 23, 2009
10:15 AM ET to 1:30 PM ET

EVENT SCHEDULE:

10:15-10:35 AM - National Clean Energy Project: Building the New Economy (open to media, live audience of 100-150)

· Opening Remarks and Participant Introductions: UN Foundation President Tim Wirth
Moderator opens and introduces the table of participants
· Remarks: Senator Harry Reid
· Remarks: President Bill Clinton
· Remarks: Vice President Al Gore
· Remarks: Speaker Nancy Pelosi
· Remarks: T. Boone Pickens
· Remarks: John Podesta

10:35 AM -12:30 PM - Moderated Discussion of Primary Principles

· Principle One – How do we build the modern electricity grid?
· Principle Two – How do we reduce our reliance on foreign oil?

12:45 PM Press Conference – Presentation of Discussion and Common Principles

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Add a Comment

Comment by Allen R. Gale on February 25, 2009 at 5:01am

The Problem - A Gale 2-23-09.doc

You asked for a plan - here is a plan. You can send comments or suggestions (plese keep them civil) through PickensPlan.

Comment by Allen R. Gale on February 24, 2009 at 8:44pm

There was considerable comment on transmission lines and the power grid, and with all due respect, a lack of understanding about the tedhnology involved. One reason distributed generation is so beneficial is to reduce the load on longlines (the very high voltage transmission system). A little about how this works:
Electric power is mesured in watts - the product of the voltage (pressure) and the current or amperage (flow). To get a large amount of electricity through a wire it is necessary to raise the voltage, thus reducing the current and this is done through use of transformers. Raisiing the voltage also reduces the resistamce loss of the wire by reducing the current flowint through it. This is carried to an "extreme" for longlines, running over 300,000 volts. This voltage can not be practically be put underground as the insulation needed would be complex and costly. Air is a great insulator, as is space, so high voltage lines are run in air from high towers using long ceramic or glass insulators. These lines typically carry Millions of watts of power, resulting in HUGE electrstatic and electrmagnetic fields being generated in the near proximity of the wires.
The effects of these fields can be hazardous to other electrical devices, like automobiles, and possibly dangerous to humans and other animal life. Therefore, it is not possible or practical to use interstate medians for transmission lines as we know them. AC power is normally generated (with an alternator) as alternators are simpler and more reliable than DC generators. AC power can also be changed with transformers, DC power can not. DC power can be generated in small systems such as could be used in residential applications and stored directly in storage batteries, changed into AC with inverters. Also, inverters create constant-frequency AC power regardless (almost) of the voltage of the input power, making it advantageous for systems where the input varies, like with wind generators or solar panels.

That said, it can be seen how distributed generation, at the point of use as in residential and small-to-medium sized commercial buildings, can be an advantage. It is simple, reliable, not subject to common faults caused by remote problems, and easy to handle. The equipment is available to do all this, as well as bi-directional meters which can accurately measure power consumed and power fed to the grid. It is not nearly as susceptible to attacks, vandalism, distant storms and such and being totally modular can handle growth by definition. Seems that it needs to be given serious consideration. If we continue to do what we alwasy did, we will continue to get what we always got.

Comment by david@PickensPlan on February 24, 2009 at 3:21pm

To anyone who missed the Summit on Monday, you can catch it in its entirety now: http://www.pickensplan.com/summit/

Comment by dee on February 24, 2009 at 1:30pm

This is the most positive attitude I have seen in Washington in a very long time.
My husband works at a company that makes batteries for wind storage and they are earth freindly as well. Now is the time. A very nice breath of fresh air.

Comment by david@PickensPlan on February 24, 2009 at 7:53am

Thank you to everyone who watched the summit and shared their thoughts and perspective! Very much appreciated.

Comment by Elizabeth Kempf on February 23, 2009 at 6:47pm

Larry King right now ! T Boone Pickens is on Larry King right now ! CNN, this is wonderful exposure....

Comment by Karl Mayr on February 23, 2009 at 1:44pm

Hi James,

I missed some of the program, as it stopped in midstrem. I hope that it can be replayed since I missed a lot.

In these few 70 years of my life, I have seen nothing to be more urgent........... than making an "emergrncy transition" to sensible management of our energy sytem.................

Only the soundest minds..... and most practical people will "push this effort to completion".

1. Make a detailed plan with a detail sequence (CPN) as timely as possible

2. Schedule manpower and appropriations to do it/

Nothing is worse than doin nothing.

Karl Mayr

Comment by Elizabeth Kempf on February 23, 2009 at 1:27pm

I agree , an old school expression : 'strike while the Iron is hot' !, I've contacted my cogressmen, spreading the word any way I can today, because The plan was discussed in Washngton today, this is Huge, Wind Power was discussed at a pesidential summit and is being considered as a solution in saving billions in our counties deficit. Tommorrow night when the President speaks to all of us, he will mention Wind Power and this is huge...its up to us to educated each other, espescially on a day like today, where there is so much exposure to this wonderful plan

Comment by Lee Bryant on February 23, 2009 at 1:17pm

I watched the entire broadcast on CSPAN2. It was informative and inspiring. I'm with Patrick! "Let's get started...time is wasting"

Comment by Patrick O'Keefe on February 23, 2009 at 1:12pm

Let's get started...time is wasting

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