Over at Portland Transport, Rex Burkholder has blogged about his experience at the first national conference on peak oil, held by the Association for the study of peak oil-USA in Denver this past weekend. For those unfamiliar with the term “peak oil” it refers to the top of the bell-curve of oil production, the point at which production has peaked and will begin to decline. Many experts in the field agree that we have either reached or are fast approaching the peak.

If we choose to do nothing about peak oil and continue on our merry blind path of unmitigated fossil fuel consumption and continue allowing suburban sprawl, which exacerbates excessive consumption habits, we will most certainly experience a crisis of massive proportions. But we can avoid such a crisis. Burkholder has some suggestions on steps we can take in our communities:

Jobs and services near housing, preservation of farmland near cities with urban Growth boundaries, concentrating development in walkable centers, light rail transit (energy intensive but not liquid fuel dependent), sidewalks and bike lanes, wireless networks… Other interesting initiatives include switching industrial and residential heat production to other energy sources, petroleum audits of everything from garbage bags to firefighter suits to garbage truck propulsion to energy awareness curriculums for schoolchildren.

Burkholder goes on to pose some intersting questions that pertain to the Northwest region:

Is it wise to build new freeways when they may not be useful in a few short years? Do we put $1 billion into new Columbia River Crossing (again, a light rail connection would make sense)? Do we deepen the Columbia River Channel when the cost of shipping goods from Asia overcomes the cost advantage of cheap labor? Why worry about a Truck Freight Master Plan in Portland?

This past legislative session Governor Kulongoski and Democrats in the Senate attempted to pass legislation that would have been helpful, such as a state biofuels program and increased auto fuel efficiency, but all of the legislation was blocked by the Republican controlled House. It must have had something to do with the auto industry lobbyists decending on Salem… maybe…?

As an editorial in the Oregonian put it:

The auto industry lobby and its defenders in the Legislature left a hit-and-run victim behind in their reckless drive to head off new vehicle emission standards in Oregon and Washington.

They bumped off proposed biofuels legislation that would have created hundreds of jobs, launched a lucrative new market for Oregon corn and seed farmers and provided a much cleaner blended fuel for motorists.

The House Republicans who let this happen ought to have to spend the next election explaining why they would trade off Oregon jobs, Oregon agriculture and Oregon innovation all in a futile effort to extend a pollution tax credit and enable the auto industry to keep churning out cars that are less fuel efficient than those they made 20 years ago.

One more reason the ’06 election will be so important. As Oregonians who want to move onward, we need to support leaders who have a realistic and forward thinking vision for dealing with peak oil and we should be urging those who are running to make innovative energy policy a central theme in their campaigns. And, finally, we can make Oregon a leader in this field by promoting a bioneer-friendly business environment.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 14th, 2005 at 6:18 pm and is filed under Elections, Energy Future. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.