Tonight I spoke to the Berkeley City Council meeting in favor of the Berkeley Peak Oil and Gas resolution at the request of the Oil Independent Berkeley group. I am happy to report that I kept my comments a bit under my alloted time of seven minutes (out of the ten minute presentation). Yea!

I was introduced by Erica Etelson who spearheaded the group.

Here are my notes:

My name is David Room. I have been working on these peak oil and gas issues for more than 3 years. I helped build two of the leading organizations focused on responding to peak oil and climate change. I was invited to speak on behalf of the Oakland and San Francisco peak-oil related resolutions. And I am on the Oil Independent Oakland by 2020 task force.

I am here to talk about what other cities are doing

Forward thinking governments – national, state, and local – are waking up to the need to begin responding to peak oil and climate change now, most notably Sweden’s Oil Independence by 2020 efforts , the UK’s transition towns, and the Portland Peak Oil task force. The work has different frames including peak oil and gas, oil independence, oil vulnerability, and energy preparedness. The frame dictates the approach and focus and therefore the recommendation which I speak to later in the presentation.

Tonight, I am going to focus on municipal response in the United States. Leadership in a number of large cities are aware of peak oil and address it to varying extents in their comprehensive sustainability initiatives such as New York City’s PlaNYC and Greenprint Denver. In a 2005 interview, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said “All municipalities will be affected by peak oil…” Hickenlooper who is a former geologist continues “given the potentially powerful financial impact on the Denver area, we will need proactive responses and we’ll need them soon.”

In March 2007, The City of Portland released the report “Descending the Oil Peak: Navigating the Transition from Oil and Natural Gas”. This Portland Peak Oil task force started deliberations in mid 2006 with the charge to develop recommendations on appropriate responses to uncertainties in the supply and affordability of oil. At the broadest level their recommendations were:

First, reduce oil and natural gas 50% by transforming energy use in transportation, food supply, buildings, and manufacturing. Develop and implement strategies to maintain business viability and employment in an energy-constrained marketplace.

Second, strengthen community cohesion. The potential for profound economic hardship and high levels of unemployment exists. Have plans in place to adapt social and economic support systems as well as contingency plans for fuel shortages on the order of months or years.
A closer example, the San Francisco Peak Oil Preparedness just started meeting on December 5. I like that preparedness frame handles the uncertainty as a risk management problem. The individuals on the SF task force are interested in collaborating with Berkeley on this matter.

An even closer example is the Oil Independent Oakland by 2020 task force which began in April 2007 and is having its last meeting in two days. The task force was charged with investigating what it would take for Oakland to become Oil Independent by 2020. The resolution builds upon the concept from Sweden’s Oil independence by 2020 declaration but is wholly different in scope and charge. The task force focused on city actionable recommendations that reduce oil consumption while creating green jobs not increasing carbon emissions. Relatively early in the process, the Oakland task force recognized the problem as “the society that oil built”; a) in the 1950s, the United States committed to a living arrangement that is unsustainable and egregiously dependent on oil, and b) that this dependence makes us highly vulnerable to oil shocks and continues to damage our climate. Based on ICLEIs greenhouse emissions data, it was clear that most of the oil consumption in Oakland was from private transportation. In light of this, the task force focused our efforts on land use, transportation, and Oakland’s ports.

Oakland’s draft recommendations include several ideas from and/or similar to Berkeley’s Measure G plans including universal car sharing, universal transit access, dedicated staff, local clean energy, and a carbon tax. In fact, I spoke with Timothy Burroughs and Cisco Devries [City of Berkeley staff working on their Climate Action program and solar financing] as I was researching best practices. Ignoring the Port section of the Oakland report which is not applicable to Berkeley, there are still many Oakland recommendations that (as far as I know) are different from the Berkeley plan, which accounts from the different framing:

• Oil Depletion Protocol – commiting to a 3% reduction of oil consumption per annum
• Urban Villages – transition to centered oriented development that co-locates residential, commercial, retail, and light industrial as appropriate.
• Public Transit Master Plan – Add it to the Land Use and Transportation element of the Oakland General Plan and strongly an East Bay streetcar system if interests warranted or an Oakland system.
• Require contingency plans by city and regional agencies and large employers.
• Encourage economic localization, especially of food and energy
• Engage with Berkeley and Emeryville to form a Joint Powers Authority to manage an East Bay Community Choice Aggregation.

The Oil Independence framing and the limited resources available to the project put the focus on direct oil consumption, which prevented us from adequately addressing embedded oil and/or other energy sources thereby limiting opportunities to reduce greenhouse gases and non-oil energy consumption as well as to fully explore localization as a strategic option.

Based on my experience and research, some best practices for a task force are:

First, treat our vulnerability to peak oil and climate chaos as symptoms of our dependence on fossil fuel energy. And throw in peak natural gas as well.

Second, develop initiatives that a) reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions, b) mitigate risks due to oil price volatility and disruptions, and c) resolve structural issues that lock energy consumption into our daily lives…

I am hopeful that Berkeley will join other forward thinking municipalities in the United States and begin responding to peak oil now by forming a peak oil and gas task force.