Senator John McCain On Stage

Chuck Zimmerman May 8, 2006

Senator McCain is speaking now and I’ll have his speech here for you in a little while. I’m going to try to get a personal interview with him on his way out too.

He’s asking consumer to demand fuel efficient vehicles while he works on legislation to help in Washington. He just said he’s against government subsidies for ethanol.

Now he’s talking about ethanol companies reporting record profits. He specifically mentioned ADM. He says distribution for ethanol is a big challenge and he hopes E85 becomes more available.

Post Update: Here’s a couple of quick soundbites from Senator McCain which I was able to obtain as he was leaving.

In regard to government assistance for farmers and agribusiness: McCain Sound Bite (MP3)

He also spoke very highly in favor of developing more nuclear energy: McCain Sound Bite (MP3)

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New Vehicles Unveiled

Chuck Zimmerman May 8, 2006

Our opening session is underway. AFVI Executive Director Annalloyd Thomason is speaking right now. She just announced the Domestic Fuel coverage of the Congress. Thank you Annalloyd!

Right before she started we had a couple of new vehicles unveiled. In the photo, Honda pulled the wraps off a new alternative fuels vehicle. I’ll have to get some information on it and bring it to you later. GM also unveiled a new Avalanche here as well. Coming up now is the mayor of Phoenix.

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Enjoying The Congress

Chuck Zimmerman May 8, 2006

Everyone was having fun at the opening reception here at the Clean Cities Congress. It was definitely an extremely GM event.

We’ve got a full day planned for today. To get things started in just a few minutes we’ll have an opening general session featuring a speech by Arizona Senator, John McCain. I’ll be recording it and bringing it to you as shortly after the session as I can.

Of course he’s not the only person on the program. We’ll also be hearing from the local mayor and others like AFVI Executive Director, Annalloyd Thomason.

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Extreme Rhythm At Bentley Projects

Chuck Zimmerman May 7, 2006

At our opening reception, hosted by General Motors we got to see a serious percussion performance. We went out to the Bentley Projects, a high-end art gallery. There we got to see Rhythm Extreme.

You’ve got to have rhythm and be in shape to do this. We were getting ourselves into shape prior to the performance with a culinary experience that you’d expect from GM. Think big shrimp, custom made pasta, champagne and cute blue on white GM cakes.

If you want to get in the Rhythm, then watch this 2 min video clip: Rhythm Extreme (wmv file)

If you just want to listen then check out this audio file of their first selection: Rhythm Extreme (3 min Mp3)

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Audio, Clean Cities Congress, Miscellaneous, Video

GM Opening Reception

Chuck Zimmerman May 7, 2006

General Motors was host to the opening reception this evening. Representing GM was John Gaydash, Director of Marketing, Fleet & Commercial Operations.

To learn more about what GM is up to in the alternative fuels arena I sat down with John and talked about the type of vehicles they’ll have on display. He says that in the sort term, the fastest way for us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil is with E85, a blend of 15% gas with 85% ethanol.

You can listen to my interview with John here: John Gaydash Interview (7 min MP3)

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Good Time For Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman May 7, 2006

The folks at the Clean Cities Congress must be loving CBS.

The ethanol industry could hardly have written a better story for itself than “60 Minutes” did tonight. Amazingly, it was all positive – not a discouraging word was heard. Maybe it was because Dan would rather make “Big Oil” look bad than Iowa ethanol farmers. Rather seemed to take particular pleasure in grilling Red Cavaney, the head of the American Petroleum Institute about the cost of switching to E-85, which the oil industry estimates will be $200,000 per station, while Daniel Kammen with the Renewable Energy Lab at the University of California-Berkeley says it’s more like $30-40,000.

“Why shouldn’t I think, well, this is just a way for the oil companies to slow or snuff out the growth of ethanol, and other alternatives?” Rather asked.
“We think we’ve shown that we’re strong supporters for ethanol where it’s appropriate,” Cavaney answered.
But what the oil industry considers “appropriate” is limiting ethanol to an additive and not moving quickly to something like E-85.

Read the whole report or watch the video here.

Clean Cities Congress, Ethanol

Fleet Tutorial Workshop

Chuck Zimmerman May 7, 2006

Fleet operators attending the Clean Cities Congress had a packed opening workshop presented by Leo Thomason with the Alternative Vehicle Fuel Institute.

The Fleet Tutorial is a basic introduction to alternative fuels and includes information on legislation as well as the fuels themselves. I interviewed Leo when they took a short break to learn more about what kind of information he was presenting and what the participants were asking about.

You can listen to my interview with Leo here: Leo Thomason Interview (5 min MP3)

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Media Training Practice

Chuck Zimmerman May 7, 2006

I brought a home video camera for the media training workshop and got to tape the practice interviews like this one.

As a reporter it was interesting to see the process. Being put in front of a camera and having a microphone stuck in your face can be very intimidating. Practice makes perfect though.

Participants in the session got to hear from a number of individuals in the industry who have to deal with the media. Then it was time to volunteer and practice.

I recorded a short video clip of this participant being interviewed and videotaped: Media Training Practice (wmv file)

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Media Training Workshop

Chuck Zimmerman May 7, 2006

One of the first workshops offered here is on media training. It’s being conducted by Jenna Higgins who I interviewed last week.

Besides talking about the importance of doing a good interview Jenna will be conducting mock interviews with participants.

That’s always fun. Get interviewed, then get critiqued. It’s the best way to learn though.

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Conference Chairman Will Kleindienst

Chuck Zimmerman May 7, 2006

Let’s meet the Chairman of the Clean Cities Congress, Will Kleindienst.

Will is an architect by training and former two-term Mayor of Palm Springs, CA. He drives an alternative fuel vehicle so he knows what he’s talking about. I interviewed Will as registration got going this morning. You’ll hear how passionate he is about the alternative fuels industry. He talks about how he got involved and what it’s going to take here in America to move away from our dependence on oil.

You can listen to my interview with Will here: Will Kleindienst Interview (10 min MP3)

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