2007 Tennessee Valley Corridor Fall Partnership Event

Building on the regional assets in the Tennessee Valley Corridor, the TVC organization has helped showcase the region's superior quality of life and the people, business, natural and scientific resources needed for high-tech research, development, business and investment in the 21st Century. Tennessee Valley Corridor leaders recently partnered with key South Carolina institutions and members of the South Carolina congressional delegation to host an event on November 19 in Greenville, S.C., focused on how the South can take leadership of the nation’s push for innovative automotive and alternative fuel technologies.

“From hydrogen to ‘grassoline,’ our universities and national laboratories here in the Southeast are beginning to set the pace on finding new ways to help lessen our dependence on foreign oil and to develop the automotive technologies and alternative fuels so important to our future,” said Congressman Wamp. “The impressive research and work already being done by BMW, Michelin, Clemson and so many other South Carolina partners in advanced transportation will soon all come together at the new Clemson University-International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) facility and that has really impressed all of us in the Tennessee Valley Corridor.”

More than 200 science, technology, research, economic development, education and business leaders attended the event’s sessions. In addition to Congressman Wamp, they heard from speakers such as U.S. Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, U.S. Congressmen Gresham Barrett and Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Clemson University President James F. Barker and University of Tennessee President John D. Petersen as they welcomed attendees and moderated panels filled with expert speakers on homeland security and advanced transportation.

“This was a great opportunity to get together, share information and look for ways we can work together for the benefit of both regions as we seek to both develop and capitalize on the advanced transportation, alternative fuels and technologies that will drive the automotive industry and workforce in the future,” Congressman Wamp said.