Four cabinet-level officials will be participating in the upcoming Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008), scheduled to take place March 4-6, 2008, at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, and Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Stephen Johnson are all scheduled to address WIREC 2008, the third global ministerial-level conference on renewable energy, following events in Beijing in 2005 and Bonn in 2004.

Members of the Bush cabinet and other leaders from around the world will address such topics as the benefits of large-scale renewable energy deployment on energy security; climate change; air quality and economic growth; multiple policy options and best practices that encourage and enable accelerated renewable energy up-take; and advancing the networks and partnerships to explore and initiate renewable energy projects.