David Brancaccio visits WWU for PBS documentary featuring VRI, Bellingham

David Brancaccio, a longtime national business journalist and host and senior editor of NOW on PBS, visited Western’s Vehicle Research Institute Wednesday to videotape a feature on Western’s Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) team that completed a dramatic run all the way to the last days of competition in the finals of the Progressive Automotive X Prize.

Brancaccio, accompanied by a TV crew, is developing a national PBS documentary, set to air in November, called “Fixing the Future.” It will explore the future of a sustainable economy. Part of the documentary features the many sustainable aspects of the Bellingham community, including the cutting-edge work of the VRI and its Viking 45 car, which has achieved the equivalent of more than 110 miles per gallon with ultra-low emissions.

Brancaccio and the PBS crew spent a couple of hours Wednesday at the VRI, interviewing Viking 45 crew members and VRI Director Eric Leonhardt. Afterward, Branacccio said he was extremely impressed by the incredibly high quality of work of the students and by how the project had inspired them to think of the future and of themselves in a different way.