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From Peak Oilers to Citizens for Sustainable Living
peakguy, Peak Oil NYC
“Yeah, the Mets just can’t pull it together this year. Turning to another subject, I’d like you to completely forget everything you believe about free market economics, reject your whole way of life and share my dark vision of the world to come. Won’t you join me?”
From the strange looks and reactions I get that seems to encapsulate the way I must come off to people I talk to about peak oil.
…I would like to start reframing the peak oil issue from one that focuses on the negative doom and gloom consequences of inaction into one that presents a positive vision of creating a sustainable society with healthier lifestyles for all citizens. However negative the consequences, we must focus on what we are for, not just what we are against.
So here’s my short list of what should be included in the (peak) oil plank of the Citizens for Sustainable Living platform:
1. Insist on complete transparancy of the world’s oil reserves and production on a well by well basis.
2. Make national energy independence a national economic and security goal
3. Create an energy efficiency ethic in society that abhors wasteful behaviors
4. Raise fuel economy standards for passenger cars and trucks – encourage adoption of hybrids, electric plug-ins and other more sustainable automobile designs
5. Re-institute the 55 mph speed limit for maximum efficiency
6. Decrease traffic through better design, congestion pricing, more telecommuting, staggered start hours, off-peak commuting incentives carpooling, etc.
7. Invest in building and maintaining mass transit systems to connect as many communities as possible.
8. Invest in the national passenger and freight rail infrastructure
9. Revise building codes for maxiumum energy efficiency
10. Encourage walking, biking, line skating and all forms of self propelled transportation through clearly marked lanes and public awareness campaigns.
11. Encourage local food production, urban green gardens, farmer markets.
12. Generate as much local power as possible from solar, wind, biomass, hydro/tidal and other sustainable forms of energy
(22 August 2005)
Several months ago, Energy Bulletin began running more “Solutions and Sustainability” stories for similar reasons. -BA
Riding Down the Curve: How Cities Can Survive the Energy Crisis (Peak Oil, Part III)
Ryan McGreal, Raisethehammer
If cities don’t plan for the coming energy crisis, many will not survive it.
…I’ve already written a little on what individuals can do to insulate themselves from energy scarcity, but what can cities do to prepare for coming scarcity?
Transportation
…However, even if two- and three-car families become rare, our road network will still exist. Whatever means we use to get around will have to find ways to leverage that network. There will be a number of ways to do this, but the following seem obvious:
* First of all, stop investing tens or hundreds of millions of new dollars into expanding highway infrastructure. Instead, develop light rail systems for intra-urban transportation between distant points in the city.
* Transform existing highways into rail lines. Governments will still own the rights-of-way, and trains are ten times more efficient than vehicles for transporting people and goods long distances.
* Share city streets for pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, etc., as well as cars.
Land Use and Building
…Low-density, use-segregated building guarantees that people will live far from the amenities and services they need to live. Without local groceries, corner stores, etc., residents have no choice but to drive to distant supermarkets. Public transit is not viable in sprawl, because the population density is too low to make buses or light rail cost-effective. There are literally not enough people living within walking distance of a transit line to justify the cost.
Governments must:
* Throw out their zoning regulations that encourage sprawl, like use separation, deep set-backs, parking requirements, etc.
* Change building codes to require more energy efficient building design (see below).
* Draw firm urban boundaries. Instead of subsidizing developers who build on farmland, cities must encourage developers to build on brownfields, restore old buildings, and allow different uses to coexist. This brings prople closer to their destinations and reduces the need for both private and public transportation.
* Eliminate hidden “free” parking regulations and other subsidies that encourage people to drive even short distances.
* Calm traffic by making streets two-way, lowering speed limits, adding bike lanes, widening sidewalks, etc. This discourages driving and makes it easier for people to choose different modes.
* Ban drive-thrus and other building models that force the primacy of driving.
* Invest in public transportation options like light rail systems, which are more energy efficient than buses.
…
To be honest, none of these recommendations will prevent the severe disruptions and dislocations that will accompany post-peak oil production. At best, they may provide a way for cities to cushion the blow and reduce economic and social exposure to the energy crisis. …
(22 August 2005)
Sustainability Network Update #52 (511-KB PDF)
CSIRO (Australia)
Newsletter Table of Contents:
- Intelligent Transport Systems offer quick environmental benefits;
- The food industry – are ‘green’ consumers a threat or a positive stimulus?;
- Traditional ecology tussles with the new sustainability science;
- Is being ‘in the red’ really an excuse for not being ‘green’?;
- Biomass or biodiversity – should we be acting for the whole Earth system or just component parts?;
- ‘Clean coal’ – another source of short-term benefits; and more.
1 August 2005)
Links to CSIRO Network Home and Newsletter archives.
Sustainability Network Update #51 (582-KB PDF)
CSIRO (Australia)
Newsletter Table of Contents:
- Conservation & food production on the urban home patch – new urban responsibilities;
- Broader understanding of sustainability through new approaches from Integral Studies;
- Can Homo sapiens survive? Yes, but …!;
- Global energy demand goes right on growing;
- New information resources including;
TBL analysis of the Australian economy;
Co-housing as a more sustainable mainstream option; and more
(28 June 2005)
Energy conservation: using less to do more
Tom Karier, Seattle Times (opinion)
Imagine two more cities right now in the Northwest the size of Seattle. Besides the obvious traffic problems, we would have serious problems providing electric power to meet the needs for those two cities. During normal times, the cost would be very expensive; and during periods of high energy prices, like 2001, the cost would be devastating to our state and regional economy.
Fortunately, megawatts for those two Seattle-size cities aren’t needed because the Northwest invested wisely in energy efficiency over the past 20 years. Utilities, businesses, government and families bought 2,500 megawatts of energy efficiency, the annual equivalent of more than twice the current consumption of Seattle.
Those investments continue to generate valuable energy savings year after year without damaging the environment. Also, energy efficiency buffers our regional economy from potentially volatile fuel prices, as we’ve seen recently for natural gas.
In the future, we will need more of the same.
Tom Karier is a Washington state member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. These views do not necessarily represent those of the council. The council is an agency of the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, authorized by the Northwest Power Act of 1980.
(23 August 2005)
