News Release

Utah Governor, Rocky Mountain Power President to Address IEEE-USA Annual Meeting

SALT LAKE CITY (26 February 2009) -- Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. and Rocky Mountain Power President Richard Walje will be featured speakers during the IEEE-USA Annual Meeting at the Salt Lake City Marriott City Center on Friday.

The meeting of U.S. IEEE members begins tonight and runs through 1 March. The theme of this year's conference is "Engineering the Alternative Energy Debate."

Huntsman, who is scheduled to speak at about 1:10 p.m., has identified energy security as one of his four major priorities. In his 2009 State of the State address, he said he believes Utah can become America's "premier destination" for renewable energy.

"In just this past year alone, we have witnessed in Utah the opening of a solar farm, a hydroelectric plant, a wind farm and a geothermal plant," the governor said on 27 January. "To support this energy development, innovation at our higher education campuses is running at an all-time high, like technologies that will ensure the long-term viability of our abundant natural resources."

See http://www.utah.gov/governor/priorities/energy_security.html and http://www.utah.gov/governor/news_media/article.html?article=2301.

Walje has been president of Rocky Mountain Power -- which provides electricity in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming -- since March 2006. He joined Utah Power & Light in 1984 as a substation design and applications engineer, specializing in substation transformer protection.

Walje, a former member of IEEE's Power Engineering Society, is scheduled to speak at about 7:55 a.m.

For more on Rocky Mountain Power, see (http://www.rockymountainpower.net/Homepage/Homepage35888.html).

IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 215,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. IEEE-USA is part of the IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional society with 375,000 members in 160 countries. See http://www.ieeeusa.org.

Contact: Chris McManes
IEEE-USA Public Relations Manager
Phone: + 1 202 530 8356
E-mail: c.mcmanes@ieee.org

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