WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer will serve as the 2008 vice chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, the group announced at its meeting here Wednesday.

Schweitzer has also taken time on his East Coast trip to push for renewable energy sources.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin will serve as the group's 2008 chairman. At a press conference with a half-dozen governors, Manchin outlined his goals as re-electing the Democratic governors up in 2008 -- including Schweitzer -- and increasing fundraising. He also hopes to expand from the current 28 Democratic governors to 30 or more in 2010.

Schweitzer said states are "laboratories of democracy" and that governors find ways to bring people together, noting that 15 of 28 states that President Bush won in 2004 have Democratic governors.

In a brief interview after the press conference, Schweit-zer downplayed his new role, saying it's mostly ceremonial. "I don't think a vice chair does a heck of a lot," he said.

Schweitzer served as the group's finance chair this year.

Several of the governors, including Schweitzer, had just come from meeting with the House Democratic leadership, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Schweitzer said he talked to her about alternative energy issues. He also plans to meet with business executives on alternative energy before he returns home.

He called energy independence "the most important issue of our day, and maybe of our generation, and probably for generations to come."

Schweitzer said he met with officials from a company called Free Flow in New York last week. "What they have designed is turbines that you can put in the river without dams that will generate electricity in rivers that are free flowing," he said. "That's some very interesting technology."

He noted the Yellowstone River is the largest undammed river in the United States.

"We have many more rivers that could generate a lot of electricity without building dams," he said. "I've been told, and we're still checking into it, that it's not detrimental to fisheries. So it's a perfect storm: it's electricity that flows all the time, as long as snow's melting in the mountains we're generating electricity, and it's good for the fisheries as well."

Schweitzer participated Tuesday in an energy summit in West Virginia attended by officials from 11 states. He also said he spoke to the county elected officials of Minnesota during a stop in Minneapolis on his way to the East Coast.

On Friday he plans to visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He will return to Montana that evening.