STATELINE, Nev. – The fourth annual Lake Tahoe Electric Transportation Forum is heading to the Tahoe Blue Event Center on Aug. 20, and this year is taking to the sky, featuring an electric flying car.
The annual conference brings together leading voices for advocacy and educational discussions on multiple modes of clean energy transportation on land, water, and now the air.
“Electric aircraft is the future of transportation,” forum founder and organizer Kevin McGehee says, “and it’s going to revolutionize the way people transport themselves.”
This year’s keynote speaker is aeronautical pioneer Heather Chirtea, America’s first female flying car owner and pilot.
“It’ll be commonplace to take an air taxi from San Francisco to Tahoe eventually,” Chirtea says, who will be discussing the seemingly futuristic new era that electric cars could usher in. “The flying cars actually make a green way possible for people to move amongst those areas in a clean, quiet manner.”
Participants will learn about her vision for the future of electric flying cars and what it could mean for Lake Tahoe and the environment.
“It’s achievable for you. It’s achievable for me. It’s achievable for every man,” she says.
Chirtea will also be bringing her flying car, a Pivotal BlackFly.
“You can be one of the first people in the nation to sit in a flying car,” she says, “and understand how it flies.”
Another influencer in the airspace, Dan Sloat, founder and president of the Advanced Air Mobility Institute—a non-profit research center integrating airspace technology worldwide—will be moderating much of the discussion and events on electric aviation.
Sloat plans on covering the often-overlooked benefits of electric aviation, in addition to zero operational emissions, like reduced noise pollution.
A fireside chat is scheduled where Sloat, along with Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, will discuss the economics of environmental initiatives, “and hopefully open people’s eyes and recognize that when you adopt systems that are good for the environment,” Sloat says, “it doesn’t have to be a one-for-one trade-off.”
Panel guests also include local voices from the League to Save Lake Tahoe and the Tahoe Transportation District.
In addition to highlighting electric air transportation, the forum will continue to cover the latest innovations in electric transportation on the roads and in the water through engaging and interactive panels, as well as an exhibition of electric cars and watercraft.
McGehee, who founded the event out of his passion for Lake Tahoe, says, “It’s incumbent upon all of us to do whatever we can as individuals and collectively with the conservation groups to work in harmony and try to do everything we can to preserve it.”
He welcomes anyone to attend, whether they’re from the general public or working in a related sector: “It’s for people that care about the environment, people that care about Lake Tahoe and people that care about transportation.”
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit ltetf.com.
