EERC announces release of the International Air Quality VII Conference preliminary program The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at UND has announced the release of the preliminary program for the upcoming International Air Quality VII Conference, beginning Monday, October 26, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The Air Quality Conference is the nation's premier event focused on carbon management, mercury measurement and control, and the reduction of trace substances, SOx, NOx, and particulate matter. The EERC is the organizing sponsor of the event. Event sponsors include the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. The exclusive media sponsor is Pollution Engineering magazine. More than 125 world-renowned speakers from 25 states, the District of Columbia, and ten countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom, are scheduled to present at this year's conference. The opening panel at the conference, which is expected to stir a spirited debate, is centered around the idea of moving carbon capture technologies out of the laboratory and into the commercial marketplace. Panelists representing industry, research, the environmental community, and carbon markets will address emerging policy and scientific issues. "Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are an increasingly important concern," said Tom Erickson, EERC Associate Director for Research and conference program technical director. "With the largest source of CO2 emissions globally coming from the use of fossil fuels in power plants, automobiles, and industrial facilities, rapid technology development is imperative to capture and dispose of, or reuse, the CO2." Keynote addresses will be presented by the entire North Dakota congressional delegation, which includes U.S. Senators Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), as well as by Carl Bauer, director of DOE NETL. The 4-day conference includes two concurrent streams of educational sessions, which will provide comprehensive information on air quality impacts on policy, health and ecosystems, emission prevention and control, measurement methods and atmospheric reactions and modeling, and greenhouse gas issues. Early-bird registration discounts expire today. To access details about the preliminary program or to register, visit www.undeerc.org/AQ7. The previous Air Quality Conference, held in September 2007, attracted over 450 people from 41 states, the District of Columbia, and 14 countries. -- Derek Walters, Communications Manager, EERC, dwalters@undeerc.org, 777-5113