The fifth annual Midwest Energy Policy Conference ended Friday in St. Louis. The two-day conference featured presentations from faculty at midwestern universities including Illinois State University, Eastern Illinois University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Washington University in St. Louis and MU.

MU alumnus William Brinkman, director of the Office of Science for the United States Department of Energy, gave the keynote address at the conference. Robert Reed, associate research professor and co-director of the MU Center for Sustainable Energy, presented at the conference on behalf of MU.

Reed said the material he presented at the conference was essentially a summary of energy-related activities at MU. Since MU is so large, Reed said his presentation was only an overview of energy-related projects at MU and was not project-specific, the way the other universities’ presentations were.

Reed’s overview of MU’s energy-related activities included highlighting MU’s areas of energy expertise, energy assets, biomass logistics, university energy production, distribution and management, energy efficiency and alternative fuel technology.

This is the first time Reed has presented this material at the Midwest Energy Policy Conference, and he said the material was well-received by conference attendees. He has presented similar material at other conferences, he said.

Missouri Energy Initiative Executive Director Josh Campbell said the conference as a whole was very successful.

Various different governmental and environment groups presented and there was a lot of good participation and good dialogue, Campbell said.

“The main objectives of the conference were to present a diverse dialogue on energy topics and new energy technology,” Campbell said.

Campbell said the conference also intended to bring to light any differing viewpoints between those participating in the conference.

For the past five years, the conference has been held in St. Louis, but starting next year it will alternate between Kansas City and St. Louis. Campbell said the reason for this change is because the Missouri Energy Initiative will be the sole sponsor of the conference next year.

Campbell also said it is important that states in the western part of the region, such as Oklahoma and Kansas, have as much of a voice in the conference as states in the eastern part of the region, such as Illinois and Indiana.