I e-mailed a few people about a PPO editorial in support of the resolution at the May 10 Council meeting. I'd like it to be a discussion item tonight. I'm pasting below a draft editorial I put together this weekend. It has pluses and minuses but we could use it as a starting point and potentially come to agreement tonight on something to submit to the Oregonian. Today's the 1st so there's not much time if we want it for the 10th.

--David

When you’re mad about high gas prices and wondering how the U.S. is going to get the global oil situation under control, the most important things to keep in mind are some familiar names: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Russia and Venezuela. These seven countries control 70% of all the known oil on earth. Every one of them is either overtly hostile to the U.S., politically unstable, located in a politically volatile region or all of the above.

You don’t need to know much else to realize that our ability to influence the global supply of oil is limited and attempts to do so will inevitably lead us into dangerous, expensive international conflicts that can never truly resolve the problem. This is particularly true when you consider that oil demand is skyrocketing in China and India at the same time that production from many of the world’s largest oil fields is declining. The global oil equation is shifting in a way almost guaranteed to ensure permanently higher prices and more volatile supplies.

Luckily, we have an alternative to controlling supplies which is cheaper, easier, requires no new technologies and can be done unilaterally at the individual and local level -- reducing our consumption. Some ways of reducing are obvious -- switching from a gas-guzzler to a high miles per gallon car could cut your gas use in half. Nationally, if the average car got just xx MPG (there are xx models available that qualify, including xx SUVs) we could reduce our oil imports by xx%. Other ways of reducing are less clear because oil permeates our society but often in hidden ways. For example, did you know that xx gallons of oil are used to plant, grow, and transport a pound of ____to your table?. Understanding the many interdependencies between oil and our daily activities is therefore key to creating effective, cost-efficient public policies that complement personal choices to reduce.

To that end, our group, Portland Peak Oil, worked with Commissioner Dan Saltzman to draft a resolution he will be presenting to the City Council on May 10th. The resolution creates requires the city to study the economic and other societal consequences of rising oil prices and uncertainty and make recommendations to the City Council on the strategies that the City and its bureaus can take to mitigate the impacts. What can be done at the municipal level to address this global problem? Policy decisions about housing density, the relationship between commercial and residential zoning, and mass transit directly and often permanently affect how much oil will be used both by the city itself and by individuals. Equally important is the national leadership Portland can provide by being one of the first cities in the nation to address these issues. We hope you will join us at the City Council meeting on the 10th to voice your support.

END

Sources:
Oil reserves: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/reserves.xls