DOE boss, county officials to sign alternate-fuels deal

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson will sign an agreement with Clark County Tuesday to field-test an energy-efficient, gas-fired chiller. The chiller is an industrial-type refrigerator.

York International, under a contract with the Energy Department, has developed a prototype with 40 percent efficiency.

The field test in Clark County is part of a plan to develop an alternative energy fuels program in Southern Nevada. The public/private partnership began in May when the DOE, its national laboratories and the Nevada Test Site Development Corp., inked an agreement to bring more private business -- and jobs -- to the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Richardson, who was sworn into office on Aug. 18, will be making his first visit to Nevada as secretary of energy. He will also give the keynote address at the International Global Energy Futures Exchange conference Monday through Wednesday at the Flamingo Hilton.

The New Mexico native has promised Gov. Bob Miller to be fair to Nevada in its fight against high-level nuclear waste being buried at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

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