2014 Harvesting Clean Energy Conference, 2/4-6, Helena, Montana

The Harvesting Clean Energy Conference is held each year in a different city in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, or Montana. The February conference will be the 13th in the series. Its organizer, NCAT, is headquartered in Butte, Montana.

The conference will include leading clean-energy experts and practitioners to talk about what’s involved in creating successful clean-energy projects that can cut a farm’s energy costs and produce power or feedstocks to market. Among those projects are biofuels and biodigesters as well as a variety of energy-efficiency technologies and wind, microhydro, geothermal, and solar power systems.

Go online here for more information about the conference or to register: http://harvestcleanenergy.org

The website also has information on becoming a conference sponsor, a schedule of events, and information on previous conferences.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock recently announced that he will open the conference with a speech on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 1 p.m.

"The Harvesting Clean Energy conference draws people from around the region, and having Gov. Bullock present to welcome them, both to the conference and to the state, is a real plus," said Carl Little, director of NCAT’s sustainable agriculture programs.

The governor will be followed on Feb. 4 by Lillian Salerno, administrator of the USDA’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service. Before her RBS appointment in July of 2013, Salerno served as a Special Assistant in Rural Housing Services. She brings more than 20 years of experience in creating initiatives for strengthening work forces and promoting jobs both domestically and internationally.

RBS administers programs specific to energy that promote a cleaner and more sustainable energy future through investments in advanced biofuels, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Those programs include the Rural Energy for America Program; B&I Guaranteed Loan program, Value-Added Producer Grant program; and Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant programs.

"It’s exciting to be able to feature someone as influential and experienced as Lillian Salerno during the conference," said Kathy Hadley, executive director of the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), which is organizing the event. "She heads up many very important energy programs for the USDA."

Bullock and Salerno will be two of many distinguished speakers at the conference. Here are just a few of the others:

• Larry Schweiger, CEO and president of the National Wildlife Foundation.

• Todd Tanner, founder and chairman of Conservation Hawks

• Fred Yoder, past president of the National Corn Growers Association

The 2014 Harvesting Clean Energy Conference will be organized around five subject "tracks:"

Track A. The Big Picture: Economic and Environmental Realities of Clean Energy

Track B. Innovations and the Future of Clean Energy

Track C. Getting a Clean Energy Project Off the Ground

Track D. Risk and Rural Resiliency–How Climate Change is Affecting Rural Business, Agriculture, Forestry, and Outdoor Recreation

Track E. Alternative Niche Markets: Downstream Opportunities

Go online here for more information about the conference or to register: http://harvestcleanenergy.org

The website also has information on becoming a conference sponsor, a schedule of events, and information on previous conferences.

Early Registration

Time is running out on early registration! The first 50 rural businesses and landowners who are involved in agriculture, forestry, and the clean-energy industry to register will get a $50 discount on the registration rate, bringing the cost down to only $145.

Registrants who sign up for the discounted registration should use the code HCE.

NCAT is a private non-profit organization that works to foster and promote sustainable technologies and systems, especially for the benefit of economically disadvantaged individuals and communities.