The US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy manages the Federal Wind Energy Program. The mission of the program is to help the US wind industry to complete the research, testing, and field verification needed to fully develop advanced wind technologies that will lead the world in cost-effectiveness and reliability. This publication, printed annually, provides a summary of significant achievements in wind energy made during the previous calendar year. Articles include wind energy in the Midwest, an Alaskan wind energy project, the US certification program, structural testing, and the federal program in review.

This project fact sheet describes a new refractory material, G-5, being developed by Trilliam Thermo Technologies with the help of a grant funded by the Inventions and Innovation Program through the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies. This material can be used by an industry using rotary kilns, including the forest products industry, and in varying applications in the steel, aluminum, and glass industries.

The cover story in this issue of the Alternative Fuel News highlights the niche market principle; the places in which AFVs would best fit. This year's SEP funding is expected to be the springboard needed for the development of niche projects. The Clean Cities Program, by matching those needs and attributes in niches, can dramatically increase the attractiveness of AFVs and make an impact on those high-mileage, high-use fleets.

Interview with William J. Lesko, a Army Air Corps WWII veteran from New Kensington, Pennsylvania, who served with the 14th Combat Cargo Group in the China-Burma-India Theater. Lesko discusses his family background, enlisting and training to be a radar and radio technician, deployment to India, flying supplies to British troops in Burma, the end of the war, returning to the United States, and life postwar.

Interview with William J. Alexander, a Army WWII veteran from Universal, Pennsylvania, who served as an officer of the 382nd Engineer Battalion (Separate), a unit of black enlisted troops. Alexander discusses growing up, joining the Civilian Conservation Corps, joining the Army and commissioning through OCS, training, deployment to India, building the Ledo Road, General Joseph Stilwell, constructing the 20th Bomber Command HQ, working in a steelmill, the atomic bomb, returning home, and postwar service.