
Technology and straight-from-the-headlines topicality combine with socializing and sightseeing at this week's 35th annual
conference of the North American Council of Automotive Teachers being hosted at Penn College. More than 200 instructors registered for the event, which began Monday morning with elections and a keynote address in the college's Klump Academic Center. David Ganss, a technology adviser specializing in advanced vehicle propulsion technologies in the Transportation and Climate Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, offered the opening speech, "The Future Is Here: Trends in Transportation Technology, Energy and the Environment." Outlining the push for research spurred by $4-a-gallon gasoline and efficiency standards, Ganss detailed a three-pronged solution of technology, alternative fuels and changes in motorists' habits: "In short," he said, "better cars, better fuels and better drivers." The presentation was attended by Williamsport Sun-Gazette reporter Heather Gach and photographer Craig McKibben, whose
front-page coverage appeared in Tuesday's editions. WBRE-TV's Jeremy Deebel also visited campus in conjunction with the NACAT conference; his report airedMonday evening.