BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Energy and transportation issues are expected to top the agenda as Vermont plays host to the 36th annual meeting of the New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers.
The regional leaders are expected to begin arriving in Burlington on Sunday for a day-long series of meetings on Monday.
Monday morning, leaders will discuss strategies for development of renewable energy and deployment of more energy efficiency measures. Then their focus shifts to the potential for electric vehicles, both their impact on transportation and on the electrical grid.
Electric vehicles are widely seen as possibly serving as "mobile batteries," charging up at night when the grid currently is little used and possibly even feeding power back into the grid during times of peak demand, especially on summer afternoons.
Monday afternoon, the governors and premiers will discuss transportation issues, and keeping cross-border transportation smooth in the post-9-11 age of heightened security.
Meanwhile, activists from both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border are converging in Burlington to try to get the attention of the regional leaders and the media.
A march set to kick off at noon on Sunday is expected to draw opponents to large-scale wind power, and critics of a plan to ship tar sands from Canada through a pipeline that crosses northern New England.

Protesters are planning to dress in black and form what they're calling a giant human oil spill.
On Monday there will be a presentation by native people from northern Quebec about their concerns over hydropower development there by the provincial utility Hydro-Quebec.