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| <back | home PEAK OIL: How the Tri-Counties can prepare for the next Energy Crisis by Janet Hunter I am fascinated by the unintended outcomes of people busy doing what they love. Russ Teall’s passion for biofuel efficiency was flowing like oil, the “new oil”, at the full-day seminar, PEAK OIL, sponsored by the Community Environmental Council (CEC) and Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce, last July 13th, in Santa Barbara. When Teall created Bio Diesel Industries, he probably didn’t have a clue he would be hooking up teenage green thumbs and the U.S. Navy with a six-foot high plant from Central America, named Jatropha. Russ recently obtained a USDA permit to grow a test plot with the students of Santa Barbara High School Green Academy, and together they are researching the species’ capacity to thrive here. Biodeisel installed a plant for the Navy in Ventura County, which will be available to process a potential local jatropha harvest. Native to Central America, Jatropha was imported to India 400 years ago. It’s a bonanza for biofuel production because the seeds are comprised of 35-40% oil, or about double that of canola or soy. Traditionally pruned to be six feet high, it has been bred for natural fencing in drier areas of India, which makes it a drought resistant candidate for the Central Coast. Assuming successful varieties emerge from the test plot, ranchers would be able to grow Jatropha as a hedge (no pun intended) to affordably maintain the agricultural status of their lands. Trucks, tractors, autos, and farm machinery, which have diesel engines can be easily converted to run on biodiesel instead of petroleum diesel. Bruce Luyendyk, UCSB Professor of Marine Geophysics, described Peak oil as a gap between supply and demand, which was originally conceptualized and developed into its present theory by his mentor and energy visionary, M. King Hubbert, decades ago. Bruce reasons that the peak can be mitigated through conservation and renewable alternative fuels. The good news is if we can beat the peak by 20 years, there won’t be an energy shortfall! The bad news is that the peak may already be upon us, and the impacts in sum will be a giant fall backward for the economy. Two indicators to watch for are increasing prices and wildly fluctuating prices. We may only know it has arrived by observing it in the rear view mirror, which was the case in the peak of U.S. oil production in 1970. Our rate of oil consumption is a key factor in peaking. Global use is estimated at 80 million barrels per day, but there are no new major oil discoveries in the world despite technological advances in exploration. Another summit, the peak of global discovery of oil, took place in 1960. Today, transportation takes up two-thirds of the world’s supply. Randy Udall of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil humored that U.S.America’s rate of consumption is the main culprit. We now use 20 million barrels per day, making us the “real exotics” of the world. Our “Oil Tribe” consumes an average 140 lbs. per person each week. He canted the name of major U.S. cities, sweeping East to West, as the participants imagined hundreds of millions of gas-guzzling commuters opening their automatic garage doors every morning. Udall lights up a path to New Energy Age via human talent for creating efficiency through invention. He pointed to oxen harnesses and bicycles, which went through stages as silly as our predicament with the gasoline engine. I heard some juicy news from SB City and the SB County at the seminar. Did you know the trash compactor at the SB County Jail now uses vegetable oil, or that SB City’s Bookmobile has gone solar and their entire vehicle fleet, including 23 hybrids, uses re-refined oil? These and other reports of local renewable energy projects in the works were organized around a 7-step energy blueprint that CEC developed, as the following: 1) Efficiency and conservation are the quickest, cheapest, and cleanest ways to extend energy supplies… 2) “Windpower is the most cost competitive renewable energy technology today… 3) Solar panels can be installed immediately and are becoming more affordable… 4) Ocean energy includes wave buoys and C-Planes… 5) Hybrids, hydrogen and biofuels can utilize existing petro- infrastructure 6) Conversion of waste to energy is exemplified in San Luis Obispo (SLO) via Price Canyon Oil Fields’ use of methane gas that is derived from Coal Canyon Landfill… 7) and Renewable energy resources generated by the state’s investor-owned utilities, will provide a major shift in conventional electricity production, adding 17% more renewables not included in steps 1-6. The Community Environmental Council’s “Fossil Free by ’33” program calculates the Tri-counties are capable of achieving the goal of energy independence as early as 2020 with sufficient political might behind it. Tam Hunt, Energy Program Director for CEC is convinced that San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties must achieve energy independence and instigate other regions to change. If not, we are choosing the path of air pollution, foreign policy mayhem, climate change havoc, and peak oil disasters. He is calling upon our communities to unite, form a movement, and demand it. Then we could beat CEC’s 2033 goal by a generation or 13 years. This could really make a difference in the quality of life for my little baby, Rose, and your kids, too. Sri Subramanian, a Fellow of For the Future [www.forthefuture.org], noted that the Chamber of Commerce ought to be stimulating questions, which would help prepare local business owners for the serious negative impacts of Peak Oil. For example, our oil-dependent tourism trade could essentially vanish from the Central Coast in the event of an energy crisis. He observes that the U.S. awareness of Peak oil is lacking, having only approached the equivalent of what we attained about Global Warming 5 years ago. It needs to be discussed in the same terms of inevitability and potential severity as California earthquakes. Preparedness should be incorporated institutionally and made clear to people. Instead, the seminar focused on companies, who discussed a palette of renewable energy products and services in the context of a profitable business environment.” Sri encourages business-minded students to examine their academic paths with respect to the realities of Peak oil and to seek career opportunities that mesh with it. His email is: sri@forthefuture.org. A mass movement is an amazing thing. Individually we won’t be able to change the conditions that create Peak oil, nor can we prevail in a domestic fortress. To spark this movement, more than a dozen businesses, government agency and community leaders explained to the seminar participants what Peak oil is about, offered various planning strategies, and reported on renewables. Below is a list of other Peak Oil Seminar presenters: • Nina Johnson, Assistant to SB City Administrator for Organizational Development with Mike Grimes, SB Public Works Facilities Management, What is the City of Santa Barbara doing to address peak oil concerns? • Roy Hapeman, County of Santa Barbara: What is the County of Santa Barbara doing to address peak oil concerns? • Hal La Flash, P,G&E: PG&E’s long-term energy procurement plans Matt Riley, Clipper Wind Power: The potential for wind power in our region • Mike Edwards Venoco: Projections for regional petroleum production • Dave Baskett, American Ethanol: The potential for ethanol in our region • Tom Oelsner, URS Corp: The potential for utility-scale solar power in our region. Janet Hunter, M.E.S., freelance writer and HopeDance correspondent in the Andes may be contacted via email: cafebolivia@hotmail.com. <back | top^ |