Hill Heat

For decades, consumers have been teased with fantastical visions of the future. From the “kitchen of tomorrow” to flying cars, predicting the technological wonders ahead is as American as apple pie made by an automated oven. With gas prices soaring and climate concerns growing, America and the planet don’t have the option to keep the future of energy wrapped within magazine pages or celluloid reels. And the good news about clean energy is that the future is already here.

On Thursday, Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will peer into the possibilities of current technologies flourishing into a new clean energy age, and what America and the world must do to advance this era. The CEO of Vice President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection will discuss his ambitious proposal to be carbon-free within a decade, and the “father of plug-in hybrids” and experts in superconductors and other important technologies will offer expertise on current and future technologies that can break our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels, create jobs, save money and save our planet from global warming.

• Cathy Zoi, Chief Executive Officer, Alliance for Climate Protection
• Dr. Andrew Frank, Professor, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of California at Davis
• Gregory Yurek, Ph.D, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, American Superconductor Corporation
• Aristides A. N. Patrinos, Ph.D, President, Synthetic Genomics Steve Lockhard, CEO, T.P.I Composites