In the spring of 2007, the Energy Rush TV traveling video crew descending on the iconic headquarters of Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. The reason for our visit was the Cascadia Conference at Microsoft’s corporate conference center.

A sizable display of alternative vehicles was lined up outside the facility, and an impressive group of speakers was scheduled to enlighten the gathered masses. Our team was able to interview a number of interesting attendees, some for the first – but certainly not last – time.

Our first target was Rich Rudman of Manzanita Micro. We would later encounter Rich on many occasions, including a visit to his home base in Kingston, Washington, but we’ll cover that in a subsequent post. Rudman is a leading technologist in the world of batteries, chargers, regulators and plug-in hybrids. He gave us the lowdown on the current crop of hybrid vehicle batteries and how their costs will be driven down while quality will steadily go up.

Next was Mark Spain from Microsoft, who told us what his company is doing in terms of digitally enhancing the vehicle experience.

Then we cornered Roger Duncan, deputy general manager of Austin Energy of Austin, Texas. Energy Rush TV is no stranger to Austin Energy. We spent time with representatives of the company when we were at the Alt Car Expo in Santa Monica, California in December of 2006. Duncan told us about how energy production is shifting from “middle eastern oil to west Texas wind” as well as how rapidly electric utilities are jumping on board with entities like Austin Energy and other green energy companies.

Another fascinating interview was with Dr. Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), a Washington based think tank focused on energy security. Luft noted that 97% of transportation in the U.S. is petroleum based, which leads to his premise that “every car we make from now on needs to run on something other than petroleum.” We also interviewed Anne Korin, IAGS’ Director of Policy and Strategic Planning. She noted that we continue to be increasingly dependent on foreign oil, and that dependence is directly related to the transportation sector. In other words, persistence with the manufacture and use of gas-guzzling vehicles is most definitely not in our best interests.

We also spoke with Bill Kinney, who came to the conference from his home base in eastern Washington State. Kinney drives a Honda that averages 87 miles per gallon. He’s done a few things to his vehicle to attain such a stellar fuel efficiency. For instance, he removed the side mirrors for aerodynamic flow improvement, and installed a mini-camera next to his taillights to see behind him. Now that’s going the extra “mile” for fuel savings.

The Cascadia Conference marked our first of several meetings with Atul Deshmane, president of Whole Energy, a biodiesel and alternative fuels company headquartered in Bellingham, Washington and Vancouver, Canada. Deshmane was born in India, attended college in Missouri, got his professional start working for Ford Motor Company, and is now an energetic entrepreneur with an up-and-coming biodiesel business. We would meet with Atul on other future occasions, and will go into detail on that in other posts.

Finally, we interviewed Jordan Smith of Southern California Edison’s electric vehicle tech center. Jordan is another example of someone we’d be running into on numerous occasions. We also interviewed him in Santa Monica, California and Wenatchee, Washington. He gave us a summary of what’s up in southern California with alternative energy sources, fuels and vehicles.

Thanks to Microsoft for hosting a great event and to all the interviewees who shared their thoughts with our crew.

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