The 33rd annual Forum in July 2009 examined the electricity transmission grid in the US, the need for enhancements to improve reliability and allow the use of remote sources of renewable energy, the financial and siting challenges of building new transmission, the question of who pays, the potential and challenges of electric cars, and the opportunities provided to customers and utilities by new “smart grid” technologies. Linda Stuntz, former Deputy Secretary of Energy, and Susan Tomasky, Executive Vice President of American Electric Power, co-chaired the Forum.