Last Friday, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, stood up for clean energy on the banks of the Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington. I joined her at the small manufacturing plant run by Imperium Energy, formerly known as Seattle Biodiesel, a company that will soon be operating the largest biodiesel plant in North America. We gathered there for a forum on clean energy and were joined by a great collection of new businesses from the Seattle area that are doing well by doing good.
It was an interesting sight, with the Speaker and her effervescent energy amongst the huge vats and miles of piping of the industrial grade plant, joined at the table with representatives of seven exciting companies who told us stories similar to the Seattle Biodiesel story. Each company had a tale to tell. In Seattle Biodiesel’s case, it was of a retired airplane pilot who started a company from scratch, using recycled tanks previously used by the region’s iconic brewery, the Rainer Beer Company. I told the crowd this advance from beer to biofuels was surely a big step for America.
The speaker was both fascinated by and knowledgeable about the nascent technologies around the table. Who would not be when the Ramgen Company told us about their compression technology using sonic waves that might reduce the costs of sequestering CO2 underground, a technology that could be pivotal in slashing CO2 emissions in the coal industry. The Finavera Company told us about its new way of using moored buoys off the Washington coastline to generate electricity. On the conservation side, the Verdium Company shared its great news that its technology can manage a company’s computer network to save huge percentages of its electrical bill, while not impacting operations whatsoever.
The Speaker saw what I did – enormous potential for both jobs and economic growth for the nation, coming right from adventurous innovators from Washington. So it was welcome news when the Speaker said she was committed to passing clean energy legislation.
With a small boost from Washington D.C., our meeting made it clear that Washington State can do for clean energy just what Boeing did for aerospace and Microsoft did for software – change the world.
