Sep. 7--At a Cascadia Center conference last week on the future of transportation titled "Beyond Oil," the star was the electric car.

Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids were lined up outside the Microsoft Executive Conference Center during the two-day conference: plug-in Priuses, converted SUVs, even a plug-in yellow school bus.

True believers on grid-powered vehicles happily exchanged factoids inside. In such a crowd, Rob Elam, founder of Propel Biofuels, stuck out like a sore thumb.

Elam's Seattle company is in the down-and-dirty business of distributing biodiesel, an alternative fuel made mostly out of vegetable oil that can be used in almost any standard diesel engine.

Biofuels, now based mostly out of soy and corn, have been criticized for not being cost-efficient -- and some scientists have even cast doubt on their environmental benefits.

Others point out that biofuels are merely a halfway measure on the way to electric cars. That didn't keep Elam from telling fans of electric vehicles that biofuels are the right thing to adopt, right now.

In the U.S., there are about 14 million diesel vehicles and 9 million flex-fuel vehicles that can run on biodiesel and ethanol, Elam told the audience.

"Both of these sectors are increasing faster than plug-in or electric cars," he said. "We see that market as the largest, most obvious and practical place" to begin reducing greenhouse gases, he said.

Electric and plug-in hybrid cars are in an early stage of development. And when they do hit the market, they're likely to account for a large quantity of greenhouse gas emissions, since a major portion of U.S. electricity comes from coal-fired plants.

More efficient biofuels derived from experimental crops like algae could be the solution to wean people off fossil fuels, he said.

Andy Frank, a professor at University of California, Davis, the first proponent of hybrid plug-in vehicles, said the transition to electricity-powered fleet is already starting.

Toyota and GM are about to launch their first mass-market plug-ins.

"Battery technology is here and good enough," he said.

But electrification is not entirely incompatible with biofuels. Plug-in hybrids could run on a mix of biofuels and electricity, he said, and be the cure to the world's addiction to oil.

-- Angel Gonzalez

Unveiling the

mystery tower

A new proposed high-rise hotel-condo tower in downtown Seattle was unveiled last week -- in an odd way.

Two penthouse units at 1012 First Ave.