Released February 9, 2009
WASHINGTON -- The 2009 AgSTAR National Conference in Baltimore on Feb. 24-25 is designed for livestock producers, project developers, regulators, energy professionals, financiers and others interested in manure digesters and energy projects. An agenda with speakers is at http://www.epa.gov/agstar/conference09.html.
The conference keynote speaker is Earl M. (Chip) Jones, III, senior vice president, corporate responsibility and sustainability for Dean Foods. Jones joined the company in 2002 as its labor and employment counsel and in 2004 took on the responsibility of chief compliance officer. He currently is in charge of the company's corporate responsibility efforts which include ethics, compliance and sustainability. Dean Foods’ current activities in the environment and energy arena include:
- Supporting an anaerobic digester project on Big Sky Farm in Gooding, Idaho, which is expected to be operational soon
- Investing in methane mitigation strategies to capture, scrub and clean methane from existing waste treatment facilities
- Tracking, quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas emissions through The Climate Registry
- Using combined heat and power systems at four plants to capture waste heat from on-site power generation and route it back to the plant in the form of steam and hot water
The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy will host a discussion on enabling widespread digester adoption by meeting producer's reliability needs. The discussion is open to all attendees, and will be held after the conference on Feb. 25 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. The Innovation Center is an outcome of the Dairy Sustainability Summit which was held in June 2008.
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Contact: Chris Voell, voell.christopher@epa.gov, 202-343-9406
