Beautiful DC Day

I'm falling in love with early summer in DC. I don't feel like I'm in a sauna, but I still can get a bit of sun.

We're currently working on putting bios together for the speakers. Many recognizable names in government. Senator McCain looks like he'll give us a recorded statement and we are in talks with Senator Obama. It's amazing to see all the different bits of a conference begin to come together: catering, A/V, speakers, rsvps, etc. We're even going to have a webcast!

I was putzing on the web looking for websites to give me more events and international development news and found some RSS feeds at USAID that are quite interesting. There are fact sheets, press releases, and more available.

http://www.usaid.gov/rss.html

I also have a webpage of shared articles of International Development, Environment, and a couple more humorous postings.

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/09828636587778791096

PHEVs - Development's (Far) Future

This summer I have been upgraded from an intern at Brookings' IDP Project to a (temporary) research assistant for a big Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle event on June 11th & 12th. Together with Google, we will be looking at how PHEVs can greatly reduce U.S. oil demand. What does this have to do with International Development? As China, India, and the rest of the developping world increase their demand for energy in all forms, it is necessary to decrease the demand of the greatest user of the oil drug: us/U.S.. As these technologies are improved on a global level, it will help prevent the transition into a developped world from decimating the resources available.

While our event will be a lot of sound and fury, I believe it will also help...ever so slightly...in creating a more environmentally efficient world. Stay tuned for updates in the preparation, presentation, and effect of this event.

Today we visited the event site to work on the event logistics. A member from General Motors spoke about possibly having the Chevy Volt on display. There will even be a Wii available in the foyer. Those Google guys are wacky! Biggest thrill: My first ride in a PHEV to the event site.

-Mike A.

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