April 7-10: WSU hosts National Extension Energy Summit

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By Betsy Fradd, WSU Extension

SEATTLE – National speakers and urban and farm tours will be part of the National Extension Energy Summit for extension professionals and clean energy advocates April 7-10 in Seattle. Topics covered will include sustainable and renewable energy, home and farm energy efficiency and biomass energy programs.

The cost is $300. Register at https://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1658410

Participants will tour Seattle’s Bullitt Center, known as “The Greenest Commercial Building in the World,” a 50,000-square-foot office building designed to be energy and carbon neutral. A farm energy tour will include Qualco Energy and 21 Acres.

An urban energy tour will feature Seattle Steam and the Bertschi School, home to the first certified “Living Building” in Washington and the first in the world built to the Living Building Challenge 2.0 standard. At Puget Sound Energy’s Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Project, participants will learn details about its history, service and future energy forecast.

Speakers will include KC Golden, senior policy advisor at Northwest-based Climate Solutions; Heidi VanGenderen, director of public engagement in the Office of Congressional & Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy; Bill Goldner, national program leader for sustainable bioenergy in the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Institute for Bioenergy; Beverly C. Samuel, national program leader for housing and community living in NIFA; and Wendy Gerlitz, policy director for the NW Energy Coalition.

Conference sponsor Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest, a Washington State University Extension program, is a consortium of regional university and industry partners working to prepare the Pacific Northwest for a sustainable hardwood bioproducts and biofuels industry.

Find more information at http://events.cahnrs.wsu.edu/2015energysummit/