Thursday, September 22, 2005

PETROCOLLAPSE - Social isolation or solidarity?

ah, yes, Jan Lundberg told me about this a few months ago... anyone want to pay my plane fare?


PRESS RELEASE

PETROCOLLAPSE - Social isolation or solidarity?

The First Peak Oil Conference in New York City - October 5, 2005

Contact: Jenna Orkin, Moderator
(718) 246-1577 cell: (646) 267-1577
jennakilt@aol.com
or: Jan Lundberg, Organizer
(215) 243-3144
http://www.petrocollapse.org/

The Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist
40 E. 35th Street, New York, NY 10016

9 A.M. - 5 P.M. Registration begins 8:30.

Speakers include James Howard Kunstler, author: The Long Emergency; Dr. John Darnell, Science and Energy Advisor to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett; Jan Lundberg of Culturechange.org, former publisher: the Lundberg Survey; Mike Ruppert, author: Crossing the Rubicon, Fromthewilderness.com; David Pimentel, Cornell University; David Room, Post Carbon Institute. Moderator: Jenna Orkin, World Trade Center Environmental Organization

Sponsored by Culturechange.org and by Continuing Education &
Public Programs, The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).

"As oil prices rise and crude oil supplies and refined products strain to keep up with demand, the peaking of global oil extraction is finally becoming acknowledged in the mainstream news. As Hurricane Katrina has hampered petroleum production in addition to devastating a large population and ecosystem, as Rita threatens to do worse, people are asking if this is a foretaste of the future of a nation that has failed to conserve energy," stated Jan Lundberg, a principal conference organizer who ran the oil statistics firm
Lundberg Survey.

"Yet, the complete story on peak oil is still suppressed, and the public remains in the dark about the vast array of consequences of this looming crisis. Dishonest reporting by OPEC countries and major oil companies have contributed to the illusion that there is sufficient time before we 'run out of oil' to transition to a 'solution', whether it be hydrogen, renewables, an attempt to increase nuclear power, or some combination of the above," Lundberg added.

Approximately one dozen significant oil producing countries are past their peak in extraction and it is possible that world peak has already arrived (this cannot be conclusively determined until after the fact). The sudden effects of shortage are likely to hit the global economy within the next three years, possibly even as early as this winter. "With Hurricane Katrina, we have just seen what the lack of disaster preparedness can do. And the effects of peak oil portend an economic and social hurricane," said Jenna Orkin, the conference moderator.

At The Petrocollapse Conference the participants will ask:

What are we facing now as the economy prepares to hit the wall known as resource limits? Will growth suddenly implode?
What will be the effects of Peak Oil (a geological phenomenon) and petrocollapse (a socio-economic phenomenon) on food supply and other services we depend on?
What is the role of the market in determining how severe will be the effect of shortage stemming from geological depletion?
Is there a "Plan B" to ease a transition to sustainable living in a world without plentiful energy and petroleum's materials?


TV cameras should bring batteries as there are restrictions on use of church electricity.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

PEOPLE'S PARK COB FREE-BOX REBUILDING, SUNDAY (9/25)

> To: cityrepair@lists.riseup.net
> Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 18:44:39 -0700 (PDT)
> Subject: [cityrepair] People's Park - COB FreeBox
> Workparty - SUNDAY
>
> Friends:
>
> PEOPLE'S PARK COB FREE-BOX REBUILDING, SUNDAY (9/25)
> 1-6pm. (BERKELEY)
>
> Consider leaving something in the fuel cells this
> weekend for a Sunday Afternoon Cob Workparty.
> Students, Volunteers, Parkgoers will all be working
> alongside the Friends of People's Park to rebuild
> the recently razed FreeBox.
>
> Please come if you can! Experienced cobbers - you
> are needed to help guide others! New to Cob? We
> would love to have your appetite for natural
> building knowledge! We can all feed eachother - just
> BRING IT!
>
> IMPORTANT: This event will take place on University
> of California Property. The University is somewhat
> opposed to the FreeBox's reconstruction. "We
> (Friends of People's Park) began rebuilding the free
> clothing box on Sept. 17th & 18th. We put up four
> legs for the roof and built the foundation for the
> box. The police informed us that they considered
> our rebuilding the vandalized box as vandalism."
>
> Spread the Word
>

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Here's how you can tell that things are getting bad

Yeah, so our chickens were stolen this week. All of them.

You know that things are bad when people will steal 7 chickens from a community garden. I'm pretty sure that they took them to eat them (or sell them to someone who would prep them for eating), because they didn't take any chicken feed, or any of the eggs. You'd have to have a lot of yard space to keep and kill 7 chickens. It's such a shame- so many people got so much pleasure from visiting those chickens and eating their eggs. I feel like our (my) autonomy was taken away from me (us)- we didn't get to decide when exactly to put them down. We didn't get to see what it's like to kill, prep, and eat our own chickens. We didn't get to try to grow our own chicks. Jess is still trying to incubate the remaining eggs.

I was looking through a seed catalog yesterday and I saw something for chicken forage. It would have been so great to plant that stuff to distract our chickens from all the other plants in the garden. It was really ridiculous- people would let them run all over the place and nibble on and dig up all our plants...

Sigh, I miss my chickens!

Thursday, September 08, 2005

U.S. gas prices finally hit plateau

yah, what's up up with the whole country's gas prices stabilizing for the holiday weekend?
---------------------

U.S. gas prices finally hit plateau
Repairs of damaged pipelines, refineries increase supply

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

After soaring above $3 per gallon last week in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, gasoline prices have stabilized throughout the country as frantic repairs open pipelines and refineries closed by the storm.

The nation now pays an average of $3.04 for a gallon of regular. Stunning as it is, that price represents a drop from Monday's peak of $3.06, according to the AAA auto club.

California drivers spend just a bit more -- $3.05. As in the rest of the country, California peaked on Monday and saw prices dip Tuesday, albeit by a fraction of a penny.

"It seems like the worst is over, unless some new problem of a significant nature presents itself," said Sean Comey, spokesman for the AAA of Northern California.

The run-up in prices stalled as gasoline started flowing again through major pipelines that serve the East Coast, the scene of shortages and $5 gas last week. A crude oil pipeline connecting the Gulf Coast to the Midwest has reopened, feeding refineries along the way.

Three of the 10 coastal refineries shut by Katrina are restarting, although with varying levels of success. More than 58 percent of the gulf's offshore oil production remains shut by the hurricane, a significant improvement from the 95 percent reported closed last week.

Progress repairing Katrina's damage has calmed the market for crude oil, which briefly topped $70 per barrel last week and fueled the spike in gas prices.

The federal government's decision to both loan and sell oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve also has eased prices.

Crude fell for the second consecutive trading day Tuesday, dropping $1.61 to close at $65.96.

"It's still a nervous market," said Jeff Tillery, senior research analyst at Pickering Energy Partners.

"To the extent we keep seeing infrastructure coming back and moderate damage, crude could come down. But it's a tough call," he said.

Indeed, the full extent of the storm's damage to offshore oil facilities and underwater pipelines remains unknown and could change the market's mood as more information emerges, pushing oil and gas prices higher. So could another storm -- a distinct possibility midway through hurricane season.

And several coastal refineries flooded by the storm have suffered serious damage, with no estimates yet of when they might start operations again.

"I suspect that we'll be stuck with relatively high (gas) prices for at least the next month or the next month and a half," Comey said. "And that's if we don't get another hurricane."

Katrina has left gasoline prices near all-time records set in 1981, when President Ronald Reagan lifted price caps during the Iran-Iraq war. California's average, when adjusted for inflation, peaked at $3.08 that spring.

Within the Bay Area, San Francisco and Santa Rosa have some of the highest prices, with both averaging $3.07 for a gallon of regular, according to AAA. Oakland pays about $3.04, while San Jose's average is $3.02.

E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com.

Page C - 1
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/07/BUG9NEJCUV1.DTL&type=business

Post Carbon Newsletter #7 September 2005

If your preferences are set to 'text only' (mine are) you're missing some
content! Click here to see the whole newsletter
{http://www.postcarbon.org/news/newsletters}./

Post Carbon Newsletter #7, September 2005

*In The Wake of Katrina: A Call To Prepare* *Community Supported
Manufacturing* *Post Carbon News Updates* *Outpost Folks: Rose Kudlac
of Post Carbon Toronto* *Post Carbon Board Members: Richard Heinberg*
*'Katrina, New Orleans, and Peak Oil' by Richard Heinberg* *September
Peak Oil Conference*
*1. In The Wake of Katrina: A Call To Prepare*

It is now over a week since the devastating Hurricane Katrina struck
the Gulf coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Anyone with an
Internet connexion or a television will have seen the kind of
terrible suffering and misery that are more commonly seen in the
so-called Third World. On Global Public Media we have posted a
particularly harrowing but iconic report from the BBC
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/news/490} which lays bare what
happens what the system fails.

Many will hope that lessons will be learned, so that the agony of
the American Deep South is not completely in vain. Comparisons with
the global South - another euphemism for the poor and plundered of
the planet - do not inspire much confidence.

Nor do comparisons with the great blackout which affected fifty
million people in the north east of the North American continent
almost exactly two years ago - the electricity grid and power systems
are still perilously fragile, and Katrina has left about ten per cent
of US natural gas supply shut in, on which electricity production
increasingly relies in North America (and many other places).

Unlike oil, there is no easy way for North America to get foreign
replacement supplies of natural gas. There is mounting unease in high
places that an American natural gas crisis will greatly worsen the
difficulties with oil and gasoline supplies.

There are many lessons that can be learnt from the horror of this
hurricane - a horror that vast numbers of poor people in other
nations already know so well: Be very wary of depending on
far-distant places and people to furnish your safety, food, health,
power, and fuel.

The people of New Orleans knew their system was inadequate to
protect them - some tried very hard to rectify the situation, but
they failed.

The most terrible lesson of Katrina appears to be this: we, the
ordinary people of this planet, are pretty much on our own for oil
peak. Most of our governments, except for a few at local level and
some brave lone politicians, have not even admitted to the concept of
peak oil, far less begun planning for it.

We who care are now all New Orleaners, we are all vulnerable: the
question is, are we going to do anything serious about it?

Most people who read this newsletter know that the global oil supply
and natural gas supply in all English-speaking nations (except
Australia) is in peril. If Katrina turns out to herald the decline of
world oil and triggers a natural gas crisis, who out there - in any
country, anywhere - is sure that their village, town or city is
ready?

If you are ready - tell us about it and help others to learn.

If you are not ready, please consider joining with us
{http://www.postcarbon.org/relocalize/network} in our very practical
attempts to make both emergency and long-term preparations for this
new world that will have to run on ever less oil, a system that must
largely de-industrialise, an economy that will have to contract both
in financial and spatial terms.

We must start to relocalize now and begin living locally once again.

Julian Darley
Director of Post Carbon Institute
Vancouver, BC office

*2. Community Supported Manufacturing (CSM) *

One of the ways we can relocalize is by making our supply lines
shorter so that we produce our vital needs as locally as possible. At
present this is almost impossible under normal economic conditions, so
we are developing a system, based on community-supported agriculture,
called - you guessed it - Community Supported Manufacturing.

CSM will help us bring our manufacturing and provisioning back under
our control and back into our locale - it will therefore create
desperately needed jobs as globalization collapses for want of cheap
energy (and maybe lack of cheap money too). The idea of relocalized
provisioning is central to Post Carbon Institute’s plans for dealing
with peak oil, global warming and ecological degradation of the
world.

The longest chapter in our forthcoming book, “Relocalize Now!
Getting Ready for Climate Change and the End of Cheap Oil” (to be
published by New Society Publishers this fall/autumn) describes
Community Supported Manufacturing in some detail, but the real
working out will be in communities who want to participate.

For more explanation of Community Supported Manufacturing and how
you can get involved, please see the longer article
{http://www.postcarbon.org/relocalize/manufacturing} on the Post
Carbon website.

*
3. Post Carbon News Updates*

/Julian Darley Will Introduce Permaculture Co-Originator David
Holmgren /

The Vancouver Permaculture Network presents"Permaculture Strategies
in a World of Declining Fossil Fuel" with David Holmgren, introduced
by Julian Darley.

The three hour event will be hosted by the University of British
Columbia Faculty of Land and Food Systems and UBC Farm.

David Holmgren has been talking about the coming energy crises for
decades - and developing the permaculture system as a direct response
to energy decline.

Even if you don't live in Vancouver and can't attend the event, on
Global Public Media you can see (and hear) Julian Darley's recent
interview with David Holmgren
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/460}.

For more details of the event, please visit Post Carbon's website
{http://www.postcarbon.org/node/585}.

/Post Carbon Local Energy Farm/

Peter Myers, co-founder of Flathead Outpost
{http://www.postcarbon.org/groups/flathead}, has agreed to purchase
land (possibly in conjunction with other Outpost members) where a
Post Carbon prototype Local Energy Farm will be developed.

Post Carbon Institute is continuing to raise funds to build, equip,
and staff the farm and build an extensive materials workshop for
repairing a wide range of items and for light manufacturing.

We are also working with Peter to establish a school to prepare
children for the post-petroleum world, as well as post carbon
workshop and courses for adults.

We shall feature an interview with Peter Myers and more on the
progress of the energy farm in the next newsletter.

/Postcarbon.org Website Re-Design /

Our web site has undergone deep structural re-design. Our last web
site groaned under the weight of large amounts of information. We
have more and more Outposts and needed to streamline the interface to
help them. Outposts and associates in the Relocalization Network also
need easy–to-use tools to communicate with their members.

The new look is meant to inspire you to action - to give you the
sense that something practical can be done.

There are those that accuse peak oil adherents of being somewhat
‘doom and gloom’ at times. Sometimes, however, reality isn't very
cheerful - surely we don't need any further reminders of that, but
Post Carbon Institute is vigorously practical, both online and
offline. To help members, affiliates, and the 'walking worried' in
general, we are developing a powerful suite of web-based tools to
integrate and cross-fertilise our preparations for a post-carbon
world.

The basis of our new web site is an 'open-source' system called
drupal (drupal.org), which is expandable so that each group or
Outpost can add their own content. Drupal also gives us blogging,
better event capability, integrated forums, the ability quickly to
create a web presence for groups, a single sign-on to all of our
sites, and much more. If you have not already done so, please
register now at http://www.postcarbon.org/user/register
{http://www.postcarbon.org/user/register}
{http://www.postcarbon.org/register}.

Please let us know {mailto:website@postcarbon.org} if you come
across any glitches or problems while using the postcarbon.org
website.

/The Oil Age Poster/

With the assistance of Post Carbon Institute’s David Room, Rob
Bracken and Dave Menninger of San Francisco Post Carbon have
developed a full color poster that traces the history of the Oil Age
from its beginnings in the hills of western Pennsylvania to its rise
as the engine of global industrial economies.

Two hundred years of the Oil Age are depicted in the poster’s main
chart, which features a year-by-year rendering of Colin Campbell’s
Depletion Model. Historical annotations as well as detailed data on
production, trade and reserves make this poster a versatile tool for
presenting the realities and implications of global oil production
and its impending peak.

The 23"x36" (58x91cm) poster is printed on heavyweight recycled
paper and shipped unfolded in a tube. Along with several other
members of SF Post Carbon, the team intends to get the poster in
middle and high schools to raise awareness of our oil predicament
with youth.

The poster is available from Post Carbon Books
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=META&Product_Code=oilageposter}
for $10 plus shipping and handling:

Click here to donate a poster
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=META&Product_Code=oilageposterdonation}
to be placed in a classroom

*
4. Outpost Folks*

This is the first in a series of Outpost profiles we will be running
in the newsletter. All Outposts and Relocalization Groups are
organized according to local skills, knowledge, directions and
desires. Each has its own form and function. It is an awareness of
oil peak and the aim to do something serious, practical, and
structural about it that distinguishes our groups. Knowing about
other Outposts, Outpost projects, and those in the wider
Relocalization Network not only connects us all together, but it is a
chance to exchange information and help one other. This profile is
about the Toronto, Canada Outpost called “Post Carbon Toronto”.

Post Carbon Toronto

Post Carbon Toronto {http://toronto.postcarbon.org} began when Rose
Kudlac met with another person in her city who knew about peak oil,
but not about any of the online material. Sensing a need to connect
local people, through Post Carbon Institute and through meetup.com,
she found other people who wanted to work on raising awareness and
fostering informed responses to energy descent. These people are now
part of the Post Carbon Toronto organizing team.

To date Rose has located:

local experts, including academics, through articles about peak oil
in the mainstream press or posts to on-line forums, and who have
worked and lectured in this area extensively; colleagues through Post
Carbon Institute and meetups; people and networks through
participation in events and volunteering in projects with 'natural
allies', which have included alternative energy projects,
permaculture workshops, and more; people, projects and issues at
public events, book promotions, meetings, forums on energy,
infrastructure, and space. Through a local environmental store, Rose
has also discovered:

the Coalition for a Green Economy, a group of eco-preneurs that have
been meeting for over ten years and who have spawned ground-breaking
local and national green projects. This group fought for the
legalization of hemp growing in Canada. Now they are working on
launching a local chapter of BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local
Living Economies; a Green Economy course featuring presentations by
local experts and leaders on different issues; and a post graduation
program at a university called "Business and the Environment", which
connects a business school and a faculty of environmental studies.
Viewing the End of Suburbia documentary is mandatory for the program.
Some of the people located above, have become advisors to Post Carbon
Toronto.

Through Post Carbon Institute, and other outreach, local individuals
and groups have contacted the outpost who are focused on:

bringing peak oil into the classroom facilitating a pedestrian city
action to mitigate climate change helping with the follow-up
documentary Escape from Suburbia (produced in Toronto) raising energy
awareness in their neighbourhoods or communities Post Carbon Toronto
{http://toronto.postcarbon.org} is currently working on a conference
“Transportation Infrastructure and Energy”, for transportation
planners and officials, with a government funding source located by
an advisor.

An online e-mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/torontopeakoil/
{http://groups.yahoo.com/group/torontopeakoil/}, currently with
nearly 70 members, helps the group disseminate notices about local
events and research related to energy descent, and keep part of the
network engaged.

Rose sees Outposts as catalysts for action in their local
communities. She says they take on the responsibility for raising
awareness and growing the network. In this role, Outposts engage with
local government, businesses, educational institutions and NGOs that
may or may not know about the energy predicament but are willing to
work in an integrated fashion.

Rose Kudlac adds that Outposts can grow organically from the
swelling ranks of those aware of our dependence on fossil fuels and
the damage to our ecosystems, and who want to lessen dependence on
the government-corporate-industrial grid. Such groups typically
coalesce from oil-awareness meetings and discussions after End of
Suburbia screenings.

Other groups may be intentionally formed by individuals within a
community through house parties, reading groups and local gatherings.
In a large city, such an Outpost is more likely to be involved working
with and informing other groups than with itself taking on programs
directly.

Where Ouposts evolve from existing groups such as book clubs,
renewable energy cooperatives and eco-villages, such groups can
'become' an Outpost or simply add Post Carbon experiments to their
range of programs.

If you are interested in starting an outpost, contact
outposts@postcarbon.org {mailto:outposts@postcarbon.org} to set up a
phone conversation.

*
5. Introducing Post Carbon Institute Board Members
{http://www.metafoundation.org/board.php}: Richard Heinberg,
journalist, educator, lecturer and musician*

In so many ways, Richard Heinberg is emblematic of what Post Carbon
Institute stands for.

Not only does he think, write and lecture about Peak Oil and the
ecological/social impact of corporate-industrial society, he is
working tirelessly on broad community-level solutions to the problems
caused by these world trends.

Richard is a core faculty member of Santa Rosa’s New College of
California {http://www.newcollege.edu/northbay/index.cfm} and directs
a year-long, intensive course on Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable
Community.

He has appeared on national radio and television stations in many
countries, and his essays have been published in dozens of magazines
and journals. Richard travels internationally to speak on the subject
of Peak Oil and has given over 100 presentations on the subject before
university and general audiences.

Richard is the author of six books
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=META&Category_Code=Books}:


The Party's Over: Energy Resources and the Fate of Industrial
Societies
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=TPO&Category_Code=Books}
Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World
{http://www.powerdown.ws}. Memories and Visions of Paradise:
Exploring the Universal Myth of a Lost Golden Age Celebrate the
Solstice: Honoring the Earth's Seasonal Rhythms through Festival and
Ceremony A New Covenant with Nature: Notes on the End of Civilization
and the Renewal of Culture Cloning the Buddha: A Spiritual and Moral
Critique of Biotechnology Global Public Media has made a DVD of
Richard giving an overview of Powerdown
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RHVideo&Category_Code=Video}
(along with a bonus interview by Post Carbon Institute's David Room).

Richard is also author-editor-publisher of the monthly Museletter
{http://www.museletter.com}, a continuing critique of
corporate-capitalist industrial civilization and a re-visioning of
humanity's prospects for the next millennium. Subjects range from
global economics to religion to the origin of humanity's antipathy
toward nature.

Subscription to the Museletter is available through the Post Carbon
bookstore
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Newsltr}
and back-issues are online at www.museletter.com
{http://www.museletter.com/}

All Richard's work is informed by a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary
study of history and culture.

Richard and his wife, Janet Barocco, live in a house they have
renovated for energy efficiency and use their back yard for growing
food. Richard is also an accomplished violinist.

*6. 'Katrina, New Orleans, and Peak Oil' - A Feature Article by
Richard Heinberg*

The scenes were heart-wrenching and mind-boggling: an entire modern
American metropolis had effectively ceased to exist as an organized
society...when it came to reporting on the damage to oil production
and refining facilities, most media outlets took at face value the
glib and non-specific assurances of the petroleum industry... And all
of this is occurring at a time when the global supply of oil is barely
able to meet demand...

Read the whole article on Global Public Media here
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/articles/479}, see and hear more
interviews with Richard Heinberg on GPM
{http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/people/richard_heinberg}, and read
more articles at Richard's Museletter.com
{http://www.museletter.com/} website.

*
7. September Peak Oil Conference*

The “*Second U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions*”
will be held September 23-25, 2005 in Yellow Springs, Ohio (see
www.communitysolution.org {http://www.communitysolution.org/}).

The end of cheap abundant oil represents an unprecedented challenge
for humanity. It heralds the end of many things to which we have
become accustomed; the ever-growing economy, transportation as we
know it, cheap food and goods from around the globe.

Many react to these coming changes with fear and dread. But Community
Solutions envisions a more cooperative, just and equitable world of
small local communities.

This conference will explore:

The implications of Peak Oil An in-depth look at changes in
agriculture The characteristics of a new economy Peak Oil’s effect on
our financial system Alternatives to oil and our high energy way of
life The communities of the future Ways to transition and answers to
"What should I do now?" Keynote Speakers:

*Richard Heinberg: *Author, /The Party’s Over /and /Powerdown:
Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World/ *Michael Shuman:
*Author, /Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global
Age/ Other Presenters:

*Diana Leafe Christian: *Author, Creating a Life Together
{https://secure.metafoundation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=clt&Category_Code=Books}
and Editor of /Communities /magazine *Jan Lundberg: *Founder, Culture
Change and /Auto Free Times /magazine *Robert Waldrop: *President,
Oklahoma Food Cooperative and moderator of online discussion group
“Running on Empty” *Steve Andrews: *Co-founder of the Association for
the Study of Peak Oil – U.S., energy consultant and free-lance writer
on Peak Oil *Liz Walker: *Director and co-founder, Eco-Village at
Ithaca and author, /Eco-Village at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable
Culture/ *Pat Murphy: *Director, The Community Solution and Editor of
/New Solutions/ *Megan Quinn: *Outreach Director, The Community
Solution and Project Manager of its program “Agraria” *Faith Morgan:
*Board Member, The Community Solution For conference information
including full speaker descriptions and registration information,
visit www.communitysolution.org {http://www.communitysolution.org/}


-----

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT! HELP PASS THE MILLION SOLAR ROOFS BILL

EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT! HELP PASS THE MILLION SOLAR ROOFS BILL

Your immediate action is needed to help pass the Million Solar Roofs bill, SB 1 (Murray). Please make a personal phone call to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez's office right away. 916-319-2046. Tell him to "Get the job done! Pass SB 1. Don't let solar power be derailed by partisan politics "

Having passed the Senate by a vote of 30-5, as well as two policy committees in the Assembly (energy and housing), SB 1 was amended last week in a way[ that has removed Governor Schwarzenegger's support and has caused him to threaten a veto. It has also generated opposition from other labor unions, namely the Carpenters and Laborers unions, splitting the labor community on this bill.

The three controversial amendments that were attached to SB 1 without any public hearing or review are:
1) apply prevailing wage to all future commercial solar installations, small and large;
2) limits all future solar installations to electricians only (as opposed to others such as carpenters, laborers or C-46 solar licensed contractors); and
3) rider that expands disciplinary actions for all electrical work in state, not just solar, via business and professions code amendments. There is no reason for this rider to be on this particular bill.

There is a reasonable compromise that the Speaker must pursue immediately if this policy is to become law. This compromise could look something like:
1) apply prevailing wage to large commercial installations (200 kw or more), exempting solar projects such as mom & pop stores and replacing farm irrigation pumps
2) direct the state licensing board to determine which licensed contractors are best suited to install future solar systems
3) delete rider

There are now two days left to pass this bill. The Assembly Utilities committee is scheduled to hold a special hearing on SB 1 today but no movement has happened in this direction and the Speaker's position on addressing the Governor's concerns with the bill is still unknown.

Please call his office right away and urge him to support reasonable amendments on the Million Solar Roofs bill. Don't let our best chance for meaningful solar energy policy in California fall prey to partisan posturing.

Thank you!
Bernadette




Bernadette Del Chiaro
Clean Energy Advocate
Environment California
1107 9th Street, Suite 601
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-446-8062 x 103 (office)
916-448-4560 (fx)
bernadette@environmentcalifornia.org
http://www.environmentcalifornia.org