Huntsman, guvs to visit China for energy talks

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is leading a delegation of governors of Western states to China early next month to talk with national and provincial leaders about clean energy development.

Huntsman, the head of the Western Governors' Association, also will host some of the same Chinese officials at the association's annual meeting in Park City in June.

"There's a lot going on between the U.S. and China," said WGA senior policy adviser Chris McKinnon. "The governor said where the rubber meets the road is in the states and the provinces."

Four or five governors will spend just more than two days in Beijing and two days in Xian, McKinnon said. The names of the governors expected to travel to China are being withheld, he said, until the details of the trip are finalized.

Their meetings will focus on sharing both policy and technology solutions to developing cleaner sources of energy, including renewable resources such as solar and wind, and on carbon capture.

"This trip is part of taking the issues of energy and environment to a global level, beyond the regional focus that the Western Governors' Association traditionally encompasses," said Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley. "It seemed appropriate to go to China, this vast, emerging industrial country to talk about energy, sources of energy and dealing with the emissions that are the result of increased energy consumption."

Roskelley said the governor will be accompanied by his chief of staff, Neil Ashdown; energy adviser, Dianne Nielson; and policy director, Robert Spendlove. Huntsman is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., on May 8 and 9 before leaving for Israel for a trade mission on May 10. She said he'll arrive in China on May 16 and leave on May 22.

The China trip is being paid for by the Energy Foundation, a San Francisco-based partnership of donors looking at the world's energy problems, and the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., McKinnon said.

"The governors were fairly clear that the only way they could do a trip like this was not to use any state funds, given the economy, or take private-sector money," he said.

During his first term, Huntsman led a trade mission to China in October 2006. The governor speaks fluent Mandarin and has dealt with Chinese officials in his former position as a U.S. trade representative to the region.

He has invited President Barack Obama to attend the annual WGA meeting, set for June 14-16 at the Stein Eriksen Lodge.

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