AltPowerThe Alternate Power Initiative, sponsored by the city of Whiting Indiana and British Petroleum Whiting Business Unit, is looking for independent inventors interested in building vehicles powered by alternate energy sources to compete in a race in August 2010.

The contest is open to all, but organizers are particularly interested in independent American inventors.

The purpose is not only to discover new sources of energy and means to store energy but also to give encouragement to inventors by the means of press coverage as well as a cash prize that will allow continued research. The grand prize is $7,000.

“We believe that there are inventors across our great land, working in their garages and basements dreaming of an opportunity to publish their discoveries to the world,” says William Halliar, chairman of API’s advisory board. “We want to recognize their efforts and encourage them to continue their work.

“Our automotive companies are in trouble and in desperate need of the innovative thinking required to get them out of it,” he adds. “The problem is that instead of looking to the nation’s inventors, who are working independently, they are looking to engineers who will only offer more of the same old solutions that got them into trouble in the first place.”

Visit www.alternatepowerinitiative.com