Beyond Oil 2009: Coverage Recap

Mike Wussow

Clean Cities program manager Stephanie Meyn looks on as U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (Wash.) presents a $15 million grant award to the Puget Sound Clean Cities Coalition. Photos by Mike Wussow/Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute

Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute's sixth annual "Beyond Oil" conference concluded on Saturday, Oct. 24. Once again, thanks to a strong group of co-sponsors, policy, business and civic leaders were able to gather at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, Wash., for smart, forward-looking discussions and presentations about the next stage of electrifying transportation and how the Northwest is poised to help lead that transition.

A Tesla Roadster on display at the Oct. 23-24 "Beyond Oil" conference held at Microsoft.

"It's going to blow people's doors off how fast this transition is going to happen," predicted U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, who took a spin around the Microsoft campus Friday in an all-electric Ford Focus. -- The Seattle Times

Three-hundred people joined us for the conference this year, which ran from Friday morning (Oct. 23) through Saturday mid-day (Oct. 24.) Our event page for the conference will continue to be updated with speaker presentations as they become available.

For a good summary of the conference and the future of the integration of electric vehicles into the transportation system, take a look at a Katherine Long's front-page Sunday story about the conference in The Seattle Times.

Because of the charging network, the Seattle area will be one of the major markets for other brands of electric cars, said Steve Marshall, a senior fellow at Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center, a Seattle-based transportation think tank. -- The Seattle Times

Several other media outlets, including Seattle television stations King 5 and Kiro 7 covered the conference. KOMO 1000 radio interviewed Cascadia director Bruce Agnew, and the release for the conference received considerable pick-up. There will likely be several more stories associated with the conference. They will be posted to Cascadia's Web site. TVW filmed parts of the conference. The videos are linked from our site.

Microsoft's Rob Bernard interviewed by Seattle's King 5 television. (Click picture to be linked to video.)

Beyond Oil 2009 Photos

Conference attendees take a look under the hood of the Tesla Roadster.

Dennis McLerran, executive director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

John Viera, Ford Motor Company's director of sustainability

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee gets ready to test drive the first all-electric Ford Focus in the Northwest.

The University of Washington's Marisa Nickle

The all-electric Ford Focus

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ron Sims at Beyond Oil. The former King County Executive discussed the Sustainable Communities Initiative.