01/30/07 Clean Energy conference

There are nearly 600 people at the 7th Annual Harvesting Clean Energy Conference this week in Garden City. They are there to talk about and get more information about renewable forms of energy. The three day conference opened with a look at Pacific Northwest renewable energy options. Bonneville Power's Elliot Mainzer says wind energy has potential but the wind doesn't always blow when it's hot or cold. MAINZER "The fundamental value in wind energy lies in its ability to displace fossil fuel emissions and to reduce exposure to high and volatile natural gas prices." Washington State University's David Sjoding says Idaho and the Northwest can get into the bioenergy field in a big way thanks to our forests and our agriculture base. SJODING "Economic opportunity will not happen on auto pilot. It's going to take some hard work. It's not just going to drop in our lap." Ron Mink, a former Department of Energy official says the Pacific Northwest can use geothermal energy to add to the energy mix. MINK "By 2015 they estimated there's about 1,300 megawatts that's sitting there ready to be developed. Right now in the total US we have about 28 hundred megawatts generated." Wind power development alone in the Pacific Northwest between October 2005 and October 2006 brought in 1.4 billion dollars in investment and 14 hundred jobs according to the Renewable Northwest Project. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott