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Vermont Peak Oil Network Newsletter

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January Monthly News and Views -  updated 12/30/06, and again on 1/27/07.
This page is updated monthly.  Please send submissions by the third week in each month.  Next update scheduled for Jan. 31st.  Contributions on Peak Oil, Relocalization and Sustainability issues and efforts in Vermont welcome!               


Thank you to this month's contributors:   
The Vermont Regional Peak Oil and Relocalization Groups; Lori Barg, Moshe Braner, Clean Cities Newsletter, Climate News Digest, Carl Etnier, the Localvores, Wayne Michaud, Adam Necrason, NOFA-VT,  Henry Swayze, Gaye Symington, Vermont Earth Institute, T. Weiss.
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Download the Oil Depletion Protocol Here:  

                                                
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Special Events

NOFA-VT's 25th Annual Winter Conference!
Localvores' Summit
December's Event Notes
    Energy Organizers' Meeting, December 6th
    Meeting with Dr. Alan K. Betts

Under the Golden Dome:
Weekly Energy Related Legislative Activities (new feature on this page)

Vermont Energy Related Legislation in 2006
VPIRG Victories
80 Members of Congress Pen Letter to President Bush to Fund Renewable Energy
Tracking Legislation in Vermont
Tracking National Legislation

Quote of the Month:  
Gaye Symington:  We all have a stake...

Editorial:
Out on a Limb...

Guest Editorial:
Gaye Symington:  What DO We Want for Vermont's Energy Future?

Articles:
Climate
Governor's Commission on Climate Change Website
Senate Hearing "a Dangerous Farce"
Phone and web briefing on the findings of the Northeast Climate Impact Assessment, "Climate Change in the U.S.Northeast."
Vermont Earth Institute offers Global Warming course
Culture
New Year's Resolve - Empowerment
Vermont Campus Compact empowers campuses to find questions and answers
100 Things you can do to get Ready for Peak Oil (all year round)
Funding for Community Projects
Census Results:  Fatter, Taller and Thirstier Americans
Economy
Peak Globalization?
Energy
ACoRN Moves Forward on Local Energy Plans
Is there Power in those Old Falls?
Full text of the letter to President Bush recommending Full Funding of Renewable Energy and Efficiency Programs
Food
Tree of Life Local Food Network
Health
Peak Oil Medicine Website
Transportation
Draft Vermont Pedestrian and Bicycle Policy Plan is Completed
Update from Idle-Free Vermont
Updates from Vermont Clean Cities Program

As the Crow Flies:  Reports from Around the State
November VPON Get-Together
ACoRN
Bennington Sustainability Outpost
Cabot Peak Oil Network
First Branch Sustainability Project (Tunbridge)
Greater East Montpelier Peak Oil Group
Mad River Sustainability Group
Plan C - Chittenden County
Post Oil Solutions
Route 12 Loop Group
Sustainable Energy Resource Group

Gold Stars to...
Vermont Land Trust

Action!
VECAN Activist Toolkit
Support the Oil Depletion Protocol
Idle-Free Vermont Campaign
Idle-Not Flyers for Idling Cars!
Organize a Peak Oil Book Display
Write a Letter to the Editor of Your Local Paper!
Write a Letter to a Representative

Plan Ahead

NOFA's Winter Conference
Community Based Research Institute

Resources - Click here to get there!
Clean Cities Newsletter
Climate News Digest
What's a Citizen to DO? Newsletter
Welcome to Peak Oil CD
Connect! - On-line Peak Oil Discussion Group for Vermonters.
VPON Archives (February, 2006 - present)

VT Resources
- Sustainability, Food, Farm & Garden, Energy, Local Economy, Community Building, and Transportation. 
National Links/Educational Resources - charts, DVDs, posters, and more.

Fair Use Notice
Information about copyrighted material appearing on this site
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Special Events
 
NOFA-VT to hold 25th Winter Conference!
February 10, 2007
Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center, VT.
Pre-registration recommended.
Mark your calendars!  The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT)’s 25th Annual Winter Conference will be held on Saturday, February 10th at the Vermont Technical College in Randolph, Vermont. We are very excited to announce the invitation Dr. Vandana Shiva to speak as our keynote.  Dr. Vandana Shiva is an award-winning physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, and author of Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge and Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply.  In India, she has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights.  She is considered a leading figure in the international forum on globalization.  Shiva will address our conference theme, “Re-Localizing Our Food Supply”.
 
There will be 32 workshops taught by experienced farmers and agriculture specialists for farmers, home gardeners, educators and concerned consumers. Some of the many workshop topics include: Local Grain Production, Climate Change & Farming, Heat Energy from Composting Manure, Wildcrafting, Cooking with Grass-Fed Beef, Organic Raspberries, Integrating Livestock into Your Backyard, Rabbits on Pasture, and Maximizing Space in the Garden.           
 
Included in the company of prominent workshop presenters are Vern Grubinger, from the University of Vermont’s Extension Service and Center for Sustainable Agriculture; Michael Phillips, author of The Apple Grower:  A Guide For the Organic Orchardist, Charlie Nardozzi, author of the book, Vegetable Gardening for Dummies, and Linda Faillace, author of Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA’s War on a Family Farm.
 
Future farmers can attend the Children’s Conference for ages 6 to 13.  The Children’s Conference offers farming related workshops, games and crafts. Also, there is a colorful farmers’ market (open all day featuring educational materials, organic products, crafts, and associated businesses and non-profits), live music, and a silent auction benefiting our Farm to School Mentor Program, a program which builds partnerships between schools, farmers, and their communities through agricultural education.
 
Registration is available in advance or at the door the day of the conference. Pre-registration is recommended.   To receive a conference brochure and registration form, please call the NOFA-VT office at:  (802) 434-4122 or email a request to info@nofavt.org.  $35.00 for members and $45.00 for nonmembers. $5.00 discount for farmers. The conference will begin at 8:30am with the keynote at 9am and an organic ice-cream social at 5 p.m.  For more information about this event, visit the NOFA-VT website.  Brochures will be mailed the first week in January. 
 
To register for the farmers’ market, inquire about sponsorship opportunities, or donate a silent auction item, please contact Meg at the NOFA-VT office, (802) 434-4122 or info@nofavt.org.  
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January Localvore Summit

Saturday, January 20th
10:00 am – 2:30 pm, Montpelier

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, East Montpelier Room
The next localvore summit will be held in Montpelier this January, with a potluck lunch coordinated by the Mad River Valley Localvores.  Three groups will present updates on their activities and next steps; there will be a discussion of the Winter Localvore Challenge, and a brief overview of the Summer 2007 Localvore Challenge plans.  Guest presenters from the Agency of Agriculture, VT Fresh Network and Foodworks will talk about possible partnerships for Challenge 2007.  

To get involved, begin by finding the Localvore group nearest you:  http://www.eatlocalvt.org/localvore_Vt_map.pdf   - Contact info for each "pod" appears below the map.
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December's Event Notes
Energy Organizers Meeting, December 6th
Citizens throughout Vermont are forming Energy Task Forces in their towns, taking increasing responsibility for and showing initiative in handling the energy generation, distribution and conservation needs of their communities.  On December 6th, individuals from several of these town committees met in Montpelier to discuss progress and share strategies at an "Energy Committee Roundtable," sponsored by VECAN (Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network).  While we are awaiting more detailed minutes, we appreciate Carl Etnier sharing a few notes about the meeting.  Here are his jottings:

Huntington: 4 VEIC engineers saw open windows in winter in town building. Did energy audit, persuaded town to spend $30,000 on sealing etc., and it was much more comfortable and they saved one third of oil bill. Then town was willing to talk to them about doing more.  (Town Clerk etc.  would probably be a good resource to speak to other Town staff.)

Newfane energy group: In midst of survey leading to regional autonomy. Started with farms; had a hard time getting farmers to participate. Have plans for other ones. 

Charlotte group offshoot of Sustainable Living Network and Conservation Commission. Seeking recognition from selectboard.  Challenge: How to reduce fossil fuel use in a bedroom community.

ACoRN uses peak oil and global warming to get people's attention, and then works on local economic issues.

Middlebury has town plan. Read it and Addison CRPC's. Middlebury about to advertise for a coordinator.

South Burlington's Michael Cassidy, Greenpeace member, has developed a letter to tenants describing ways to increase energy efficiency. Plans to circulate it to landlords statewide and then nationwide.

Brattleboro group: Town provides them with office space.

Huntington: Thinking about a "resource island" within town, eg at school, where people can go for electricity, heat, food, water during power outages.

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Challenges
1. People power--need more than 1-2 people per group.
2. Didn't hear much about resource needs.
3. Bulb blitz a challenge in towns where there is no hardware store.
4. Regulatory process is not helpful (mostly micro-hydro).
5. Teaching old skills to respond to oil shortage.
6. Hard to get people to think differently.
(Small selection from what will be in the notes)

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Daniel Holvis - Putney energy committee. Web developer. Has put together Google map for Vermont woodworkers that he could show us how to redo for energy groups.

VPIRG 3 offers
1. Will share contact info for our members in your town and help you contact them
2. Great educational material
3. Will be coordinating energy legislation.

VNRC (Vermont Natural Resources Committee) is planning trainings for people who want to influence state and local policy. Contact Johanna Miller if you want one near you.

Mark Feb 15 as Citizen Lobby Day in your calendar!

Assoc. of Vermont Recyclers founded Youth Environmental Action program five years ago. Network of teens around state. Willing to have peak oilers or others give talks to them.

Issue raised:  People love to be asked to do specific jobs, but they don't dare take responsibility. One person needs to take leadership role.
Facilitator noted:  People in this room are doers--do they have delegation skills?
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Notes from a Meeting with Dr. Alan K. Betts
submitted by Henry Swayze
Henry writes that he found Dr. Betts (Pres., Vt. Academy of Science & Engineering) to be well-informed, and certainly level-headed on the issues of Greenhouse Gas emissions and Global Climate Change.  Here are a few of Henry's notes from the discussion:

H2O is a greenhouse gas but washes out of the environment in less than a day. Soot and particulates from incomplete combustion wash out in a couple of days. The dust and sulfur from a major volcanic eruption will wash out in a couple of years.

CO2 and methane take 100 years to wash out.  This means that if we were to stop all fossil fuel burning immediately our CO2 level would remain the same for quite a time and temperatures would continue to rise for a period.

Excess atmospheric CO2 is absorbed by the ocean to try to get in balance with the atmosphere.  Because this produces a very mild acid (carbolic the same as in sodas) it lowers the PH of the ocean.  We are near the point  where the calcium that forms corals and the spines of urchins will not form or will dissolve.  Since these are the building blocks of many ocean ecosystems we are entering into a totally unknown territory.
 
6 of the hottest years in the last hundred occurred in the last 8 years.

Ignoring the problem of climate change will be approximately 20 times more expensive than fixing it and leave us with a drastically altered world.  Right now we have all the knowledge and technology to level out the amount of warming gasses in the atmosphere and must do so in the next 4-10 years.  By then we could develop the new technology to further reduce our output by 60% by 2050 and ward off catastrophic change.

Fixing the problem must be a personal, local, state , national and international effort each reinforcing the others.
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Under the Golden Dome

“The most important political office is that of the private citizen.”
                                                                            - Louis D. Brandeis  


Energy Related Legislative Activities
Thursday, January 25th newsflash and action request:
Members of the GEMPOG attended a gathering at the offices of VPIRG last night to be involved in their effort to support H 127, the Renewable Energy Standards bill (description and link follows).   VPIRG is asking as many as possible to call their legislators in the House (at this time) expressing their support.  
Bill:     H.0127    http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2008/bills/intro/H-127.htm
Title:     REVISING THE RETAIL ELECTRIC PROVIDERS' PORTFOLIO STANDARDS SO THAT AT LEAST FIVE PERCENT OF THE STATE'S TOTAL ELECTRICAL ENERGY LOAD AS OF 2012 WILL BE MET BY RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES. 

Vermont Legislature - Week of January 21, 2007 - January 27, 2007
(prepared by Thomas Weiss, citizen of Vermont, from information provided by the legislative council and from personal observation.)
For further information contact your representative, call the legislative council (828-2228), or look at www.leg.state.vt.us.  To testify on a bill in person call the legislative council (828-2228). You can send written testimony to the committee at the state house in Montpelier (115 State Street, Montpelier 05633-5301).

NEW BILLS:  (This gives the title and my brief summary.  You can get any bill in the bill corridor of the state house or on line at www.leg.state.vt.us)

H.58 - Idling school bus engines on school property in House Education.  This would forbid idling of school buses.  The engine may not be started until leaving the school premises.
H.70    Establishing a streamlined process for permitting small renewable energy facilities in House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources.  Requires the public service board to develop streamlined permitting for projects up to 5 MW owned by public entities.  It limits the streamlining of hydropower to existing dams that meet certain criteria.  It authorizes the Secretary of Natural Resources to co-ordinate the state interest before the public service board.  And it requires the Secretary of Natural Resources to revise the 1993 procedure for determining minimum low flow at run-of-river projects.
H.71 - Residential electricity surcharges upon large new residential units that are hooked up to the grid and upon large electricity users in House Natural Resources and Energy.  This will require payment of $10 per square foot above 4,000 square feet for new homes.  It will require electric rates for those residences to reflect the costs incurred at the time the electricity is obtained by the retail provider.  It adds a residential electricity consumption surcharge for residences using more than 115% of the state's average annual consumption rate per individual unit.  The money will be deposited in the clean energy fund that was established to receive the payment from Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee in exchange for its authorization to increase electricity production.
H.75 - Registration and inspection of dams in House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources.  It requires owners of dams to register them with the secretary of natural resources and then to have them inspected annually by a civil engineer.  The definition of a dam depends on its height, volume of storage, and use.
H.77 - Act 250 notice for holders of easements in House Natural Resources and Energy.  This will require holders of easements on adjoining properties to be notified under the same conditions as the owners of the adjoining properties. 
H.90 - Fund for the national Christmas tree.  Printed but not read for the first time.  This gives $25,000 to the Bennington Chamber of Commerce to defray costs of the national Christmas tree in December 2007.

S.40 - Prohibiting municipalities from regulating home prices in Senate Government Operations, which held a joint hearing on 1/19/7.  The way the bill is written, large-lot zoning and requirements for affordable housing regulate home prices.
S.44 - Common assets trust in Senate Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs.  This establishes a Vermont Common Assets Trust Corporation managed by a board of six trustees, all of whom must have competence and experience in finance, investments, or business management.  The corporation shall manage the fund, which comes from appropriations and other revenues established by law (at the moment none).  The fund shall be used to enhance the common assets; to provide direct benefits to all of the citizens of the State (health care, Social Security enhancements, start-up grants for 18-year-olds) and otherwise as the trustees determine in the interests of the beneficiaries.  At least 25% of the disbursements are to be pro rata dividends to each citizen of the state.  The bill establishes an advisory committee (four legislators and five members of the public) to hold public meetings and report to the legislature annually on the status of Vermont's common
assets and suggestions on how to better manage them, including sources of funds and ways to disburse them.
S.48 - No Act 250 in an industrial district.  Printed but not read for the first time.  This bill will allow a municipality to take an established industrial district out of Act 250 review and be subject to
local zoning instead.
S.49 - Health insurance for farmers.  Printed but not read for the first time.  This declares farmers and farm employees to be uninsured people for purposes of Vermont eligibility in the Vermont Health Assistance Program; subsidies for employer-sponsored insurance; Catamount Health Assistance Program; and Catamount Health Plan.

COMMITTEE HEARINGS:  (Hearings are subject to change: addition or deletion; if you are really interested, contact the committee to find out (828-2228).  Check www.leg.state.vt.us for the latest schedule.  To testify on a bill in person call the legislative council (828-2228).  Send written comments to the committee at the state house in Montpelier (05633).  Recordings of all committee hearings can be ordered on compact disc from the legislative council at a nominal fee.

Joint Climate Change Hearings: - Specific Opportunities for Vermont to Build a Sustainable Economy by Addressing Climate Change.   These are the last of the major joint hearings with eight committees on climate change:
     Wednesday, January 24, 9 - 11,  room 11.  Richards Cowart and Sedano (Regulatory Assistance Program); Michael Dworkin (Institute for Energy and Environment); Robert Costanza (UVM's Gund Institute for Ecological Economies); Richard Watts (UVM's Transportation Research Center).
     Thursday January 25, 9 - 11, Room 11.  Jeffrey Wolfe (gro Solar); Lawrence Mott (wind developer); David Blittersdorf (NRG Systems); Scott Johnstone (Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization); Robert Mulcahy (smugglers' Notch Ski Area); possibly another businessman,
    Tuesday January 23:  John Hasen of the Natural Resources Board on growth centers at House Natural Resources and Energy, (11 - 12 )
        Also on Tuesday:  H.28 (Dairy support program) at House Agriculture (3:30 - 4:30)
    Wednesday January 24:  Report of the In-ground septic systems technical advisory committee at House Fish, Wildlife & Water Resources. (11 - 12)
        Also on Wednesday:  Andrew Perchlick and Lee Seddon (Renewable Energy Vermont) at House Natural Resources and Energy. (1 - 3)
    Thursday, January 25, 2007 H.28 (Dairy support program) at House Agriculture (3 p.m.)
    Friday, January 26, 2007  S.44 (Common Assets Trust) at Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs (9:30)
        Also on Friday:  H.49 (Limiting home prices) at House General, Housing and Military Affairs (10 a.m.)
        Also on Friday:  Introductions of Center for Sustainable Agriculture and NOFA at House Agriculture. (10 - 12)
    Monday, February 5, 2006, 4:15-5:45 p.m. ­ The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will hold a joint public hearing on Vermont Interactive Television (V.I.T.) to give Vermonters throughout the state an opportunity to express their views about the State budget for fiscal year 2008.  All V.I.T. sites will be available for the hearing:  Bennington, Brattleboro, Castleton, Johnson, Lyndonville, Middlebury, Montpelier, Newport,  Randolph Center, Rutland, Springfield, St. Albans, Waterbury, White River Junction and Williston.  V.I.T.’s web site has an up-to-date location listing, including driving directions, addresses and telephone numbers.

LAST WEEK:
Actions on Previous Bills:
S.32 - Appointments and terms for energy co-ordinators.  This passed the Senate on January 17 and was sent to House Government Operations on January 19.  (The Senate did not have a Saturday session on the 13th; the Legislative Council's site inadvertently had listed a Senate calendar for Saturday instead of the following Tuesday.)
H.28 - Dairy assistance program in House Agriculture.  Hearing 1/18/7.
H.49 - Will forbid municipalities from placing a cap on the selling price of a house.  In House General, Housing, and Military Affairs committee, which held a hearing jointly on this and S.40 on 1/19/7.

Hearings on Climate Change:  The articles in the Burlington Free Press that I have read seem to be covering the hearings accurately, although I have not read all of their articles.

Peter Barnes of Working Assets presented his plan to cap carbon imports by requiring an annual permit to import carbon into Vermont.  The permit fees would go into a fund to pay dividends to Vermont residents.  He said that voluntary efforts and incentives will be insufficient to achieve the 80% reduction in carbon emissions that we need.  Regulation of carbon can be based on emissions or supplies.  Because of Vermont's diffuse emissions, it will be easier to control carbon supplies.  He believes that a carbon permits should be auctioned by the State with the proceeds benefitting residents as opposed to issuing the permits for free which gives a windfall to the people receiving the permits.  Many western states have some kind of permanent fund that benefits the residents.  The funds come from taxes and fees on coal, oil, or other resources extracted from the state.  Vermont's fund would be based on the State's capacity to absorb carbon.

The Governor's Commission on Climate Change (established by executive order in 2005) and required by the legislature last year to help develop a statewide climate change action plan, presented a status report to the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee on Wednesday.  Jeffrey Wennberg (Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation) reviewed the recent history of State actions (Executive Order 14-03, Climate Change Action Plan for State Government Buildings and Operations; Executive Order 7-05, Governor's Commission on Climate Change; and laws last year for Vermont to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and broadening the climate change goals.  Vermont's short terms goals in the executive order and the statute (10 VSA 578) are very ambitious: a 25% reduction in greenhouse gases from the 1990 baseline by 2012 (five short years away).  Most other states have goals of a 10% reduction by the year 2020.  Ernie Pomerleau (chair and with Vermont Real Estate) explained that the commission is composed of 30 some people bringing together Vermont Public Interest Research Group, Conservation Law Foundation, the Associated Industries of Vermont, and more.  Members represent energy, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, tourism and recreation, heath care, non-governmental organizations, academia, and state and local government. (Their internet site is www.vtclimatechange.us.)  They had come to the legislature to give a status report and to take back to the commission what the committee would like to see from the commission.  He pointed out that one can now argue the degree of climate change but not the existence of climate change.  Ken Colburn (facilitator from Center for Climate Strategies) described the commission (6 members), the plenary group (31 members, plus six from the Department of Environmental Conservation), and its four work groups.  The commission was scheduled to have a plenary session the next day to whittle down the more than 300 original items from the catalog of possible greenhouse gas reductions to a smaller number acceptable to the commission to evaluate in more detail for inclusion in its report, due September 1, 2007.  Vermont's greenhouse gas emissions are significantly different from the nationwide averages: transportation 46% vs. 26%; electricity 1% vs. 32%; residential/commercial fuel 28% vs. 9%.  That means that Vermont has different opportunities than the nation as a whole.  The committee gave the commission the message that the committee is ready to take action now and finds the September 1 report date (even though agreed by the legislature last year) to be too slow for them.  {On Thursday, the Commission did have its third plenary meeting with some reports in the news that day and the next.}

The Farm Energy Handbook was introduced at a milk and cookies reception in the state house cafeteria on January 17.  It is a collaborative effort of Vermont Environmental Consortium, the Vermont Dairy Task Force, and Ben & Jerry's.  "This handbook provides an overview of the ways that farmers may be able to develop greater energy security and increase farm profitability by making use of farm resources."  Contact Diane Bothfeld (828-3835) at the Agency of Agriculture.  There were displays by Efficiency Vermont, Native Energy (carbon dioxide credits and cool tags) and two groups promoting wood pellets and grass pellets. Ben & Jerry's, Monument Farms, and Cabot Cheese provided refreshments.

Vernon Grubinger (UVM extension service) made a presentation to eight committees on Thursday, January 18th.  He noted that climate change is already happening; the questions are now how much will the change be and how fast will it occur.  He talked about the effects of climate change in Vermont, to date and projected into the future.  We already have longer growing seasons, less snow cover in winter, and precipitation that is more irregular.  He is pushing renewable energy on the farm and ties between agriculture and peak oil.  Pluses of climate change: more photosynthesis, longer growing season, less winter stress, more rain, benefits to some crops like grapes.  Minuses of climate change: more floods, more droughts, new insect pests, new plant and animal diseases, new weeds, new invasive species, more heat stress in livestock, and more stress on cool-climate crops such as apples.  More carbon dioxide in the air reduces the effectiveness of glyphosate herbicides.  Grass pellets can be used for fuel, but they have calcium and phosphorus ash and deposits that are not found in wood pellets.  Corn is a good rotation crop on a vegetable farm.  One farm in western Massachusetts heats its greenhouse with fuel corn grown on the farm.  There are pilot projects in Vermont for growing oilseeds (canola, soy, mustard, and sunflowers).  More information is at www.climateandfarming.org.  {The site is by a collaboration of the University of Vermont, Cornell University, and Clean Air-Cool Planet.  "We encourage you to download PowerPoints, factsheets and other resources from this site and use them in your educational programs. Please credit climateandfarming.org."

Michael Stoddard and Samuel Krasnow (Environment Northeast) presented their Climate Change Road Map for New England and Eastern Canada.  This is a broad report for the geographical region of the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers.  The report is about solutions to a 75% reduction in greenhouse gases to date.  They presented a number of broad goals.  They presented 10 broad areas for Vermont to work on to limit greenhouse gases, but Vermont had moved ahead of them in some areas, which they acknowledged.  Their report was designed for the six states and five provinces and was not specific to Vermont.  Many legislators left before the presentation was finished.

Statehouse expansion plans were presented to the House Institutions committee by Trishia Harper (architect with Finegold Alexander, who is developing plans for the Department of Buildings and General Services for the legislature).  The current proposal is add an additional floor above the cafeteria building, which is behind the State House.  Costs go up, additional electrical work will be needed in the main building to support this expansion.  During the first part of the presentation, no mention was made of the relation between the expansion and Vermont's greenhouse gas reduction goals (already in Vermont statutes at 10 VSA 578).  The committee seemed frustrated at continuing rise in cost for a smaller and smaller project over the years.  The committee seemed not to
consider whether the expansion will help or hinder the state in meeting its greenhouse gas reduction goals.  But I did not stay for the whole hearing.

Elliott Eisenberg and Debbie Bassert (National Association of Homebuilders) talked about the economics of inclusionary zoning in a joint hearing on bills H.49 and S.40 on 1/18/7.  Those bills will
prevent a municipality from "directly or indirectly regulating the price for any privately developed housing unit on a residential building lot."  Inclusionary zoning is jargon for requiring that a builder provide a certain amount of affordable housing in any project.  They said that such requirements have the effect of raising all housing prices in the area and reducing the amount of construction.  They also depress the price of land and pushes construction of new housing outside the area with the inclusionary zoning.  The burden of inclusionary zoning ultimately falls on buyers and the current landowners.  To be done properly, they said, that a municipality must carefully consider many questions about goals, purposes, and effects and then to carefully create an ordinance that meets those goals, purposes, and effects.  They also claimed that the lack of affordable housing is based on a failure to co-ordinate job growth with housing growth; on outdated ordinances limiting the mix of housing; on restrictions on available land; and on the complexity and cost of regulations.  Burlington has inclusionary zoning and was used as an example from one study: it had 6% growth of housing units while the surroundings (implied not to have inclusionary zoning) had 32% growth.
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NOTICE TO OUR READERS:  Weiss' reports are being archived in a new area of the website.  Details and links to follow. - ed.


Vermont Energy Policy Reforms Enacted by the 2005-2006 General Assembly
(Thanks to Adam Necrason of Sirotkin and Necrason, a Government and Public Affairs Law Firm)

S.52 (NO.61.)  An Act relating to Renewable Energy, Efficiency, Transmission and Vermont’s Energy Future:  Leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2006/acts/ACT061.HTM
This bill was the main, omnibus energy bill developed primarily by the House and Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committees during the 2005 session.  Elements include: 
    Renewable Portfolio Standard - Sustainably priced energy enterprise development program, aka “SPEED” - (“each retail electricity provider in VT shall supply an amount of energy equal to its total incremental energy growth between Jan. 1, 2005 and Jan. 1, 2012 through the use of electricity generated by new renewable resources”; multiple methods for meeting this requirement).
    Distributed Generation and Energy Efficiency
    Standards for Interconnection of Distributed Generation
    Governing Advocacy for Efficient Regional Electric Reliability Policy
    Performance Based Ratemaking

State Government was asked to prepare studies relating to commercial building energy standards, public involvement in commercial wind permitting, grant programs for renewable farm energy systems, among others.

J/545 (Act 74)  Authorizing Vermont Yankee to go to the PSB seeking Permission for Dry Cask Storage (and establishment of the Clean Energy Fund)
Leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2006/acts/ACT074.HTM
First purpose of this bill was to set standards to govern the PSB review of ENVY proposal to put nuclear waste on-site, dry cask storage. Second purpose was to establish the Clean Energy Fund.

H.859:  The Energy Security and Reliability Act
Leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=docs/2006/bills/passed/H-859.HTM
Main, omnibus energy bill developed primarily by the House and Senate Resources and Energy Committees during the 2006 session.  Elements include:
    Public Engagement in Power Planning
    Commercial Building Energy Standards
    Optional Powers and Duties of Regional Planning Commissions
    Self-generation and Net Metering (small gains here; farmers are allowed to generate systems over the net metering limit.)
        Requires PSB to expand net metering by considering:
            - Expanding the net metering system size cap
            - Allow for group net metering
            - Provide compensation to the customer for any remaining unused credits
            - Allow utilities to count net metered power as a contribution towards their SPEED power requirements
    VT Clean Energy Development Fund Appropriation and Management
    Low income electric energy affordability study and assistance program design
    Mandated notice of efficiency utility program to all weatherization recipients
    All energy efficiency utility study
    Electric efficiency utility funding statute revision
    Electric rate design
    Pre construction cost recovery guarantee option for SPPED power

H.253: An Act Relating to establishing Energy Efficiency Standards for certain Appliances
Leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2006/bills/passed/H-253.HTM
Sets minimum efficiency standards for specific new products.

S.259: An Act relating to establishing Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals and a plan for meeting those goals
Leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2006/bills/passed/S-259.HTM
Specific targets set for reductions from 1990 levels of greenhouse gases by VT.  State agencies required to consider goals and implications when they act; executive branch required to work with stakeholder commission and the public to develop a climate change action plan.

H.860: An Act relating to VT’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2006/bills/passed/H-860.HTM
Guides VT’s implementation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

S.124: An Act relating to a Certificate of Public Good for extending the operating license of a Nuclear Power Plant
Leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2006/bills/passed/S-124.HTM
Establishes a statutory process to implement state policy with respect to the operation of any nuclear energy generating plant in the state beyond the date of current certification (2012).  Sets state policy governing relicensing.

S.228: Price Gouging of Petroleum Products and Heating Fuel Products, and setting Requirements for Pre-buy Contracts.
Leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2006/bills/passed/S-228.HTM
Ensures that those entities involved in sale or transfer of these products do not take advantage of purchasers during a market emergency.  Consumer protection standards set.

And, from Vermont Clean Cities' Policy Watch:
Additional Laws enacted during the 2005-6 legislative session
A diesel exhaust smoke emissions law was approved back in May, which directs the Agency of Natural Resources to establish a standard of exhaust-smoke emission for all diesel-powered commercial motor vehicles operated on state highways. Fines are authorized for violators. Enforcement is set to begin July 1, 2007. [Source: Vermont General Assembly. View Act summary]

The fiscal year 2007 Transportation Program budget includes over $45 million for alternative transportation (public transit, pedestrian & bike facilities, park & rides, multi-modal facilities, and rail infrastructure), or 10% of all transportation program funding. This is up from $27 million last year, or 8% of total transportation funding. [Source: Vermont General Assembly. Summaries: FY07, FY06]
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2006 VPIRG Victories
- Passed 5 new laws addressing clean energy and global warming, including our tough new appliance efficiency law that will save Vermonters over $130 million dollars and reduce our global warming pollution as much as removing 16,000 cars from the road.
- Took one step closer to universal health care with the passage of the Health Care Affordability Act that establishes an affordable health insurance program for anyone in Vermont who has been uninsured for 12 months and creates an improved chronic care management system available to every Vermonter.
- Reduced mercury pollution in Vermont by requiring collection, removal, and proper disposal of mercury-added switches from automobiles before they are disposed of or recycled for scrap metal.
- Fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend Vermont’s right to fair and clean elections.  Unfortunately, the Court struck down Vermont’s law, which included popularly supported spending caps for all state races.  
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80 Members of Congress Pen Letter to President Bush to Fund Renewable Energy

December 14, 2006, Washington, DC [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]
"We look forward to working with you on this important endeavor."
- closing line from the letter to Bush.

Eighty Members of the U.S. House of Representatives took time this week to send a letter to President Bush seeking substantially higher funding levels for renewable energy and energy efficiency in the White House's Fiscal Year 2008 (FY'08) budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy. In particular, the letter calls for full funding of the advanced hydropower program and geothermal power programs as well as the biomass/biofuels, wind, and solar programs in addition to the buildings, industry, and vehicles efficiency programs.

Circulated by Representatives Mark Udall (D-CO) and Zach Wamp (R-TN), the letter notes that "renewable energy and energy efficiency can have the most immediate and longest lasting positive effect on energy availability, stable prices, and greenhouse gas emissions." Consequently, it urges the Administration to "develop a request that fully funds the renewable energy and energy efficiency programs in the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal agencies at the levels authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005." In particular, the letter calls for full funding of the advanced hydropower program and geothermal power programs as well as the biomass/biofuels, wind, and solar programs in addition to the buildings, industry, and vehicles efficiency programs.

The signers conclude that "a budget request that fully funds the range of federal sustainable energy programs will go a long way toward meeting the nation's goals of reducing energy imports and controlling energy prices while also improving the economy, national and homeland security, and the environment and public health."
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(ed note:  see Energy Section for full text, and signatories.)


Keep Track of what's happening with legislation in Montpelier:  http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/database2.cfm  
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And, on the National front, you can follow the trail of activity at:  http://www.govtrack.us/  - GovTrack is a noncommercial project unaffiliated with the U.S. Government or any other group. You're welcome to reuse any material on their site. "Transparency in government is key for a healthy democracy. Transparency is achieved through spreading information about government, and making that information accessible to everyday citizens."
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Quote of the Month
Don’t leave the discussion about Vermont’s energy future to those with an obvious short-term stake in the outcome.  We all have a stake in this discussion.
- Gaye Symington, Vermont's Speaker of the House

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Editorial
Out on a Limb isn't such a bad place to be... especially if you're the one holding the saw.
by Annie Dunn Watson
Well, I'll go out on a limb here... New Year's Day is a day for pronouncements, after all.  As I look back on the year just ending, it seems to me we've received every indication that the most pressing issue of our time is, in a word, "Overshoot."  Every other issue we can name boils down to this one:  we have absolutely overstepped our bounds, ecologically, economically and socially, and now we just have to deal.  We have put ourselves in a position where it is impossible to pretend we can do whatever we wish without experiencing the consequences.  The world inevitably rings out a warning, and it has certainly done so this year; the inconvenient truths pile up like too many presents on Christmas morning:  peak oil! global climate change! economic collapse, species die-off, and wide-spread social unrest!  Well, what did we expect?  What exponentially rising tide could truly lift such a diversity of boats?  The sustainability stool - or maybe ark, in this case - cries out as never before to be built, and if we want the human race to be able to sit more or less comfortably upon it, we've got to make sure that all three legs are squarely underneath:  people, place and productivity. Ensuring social justice and equity, practicing sound environmental stewardship (which amounts to a downright rescue mission these days) and developing local, sustainable and equitable economic practices is the only way we are going to get there; no substitutions allowed.  

This year, members of the greater network of peak and post oil groups throughout Vermont offered up their best thinking on these issues.  Their ideas and initiatives appeared as "Guest Editorials" each month in the VPON Monthly News and Views, and also appeared under headers such as "Energy", "Food", and "Culture."  Groups like The Localvores, Sustainable Living Networks, and Town Energy Committees sprang up all over the state, offering concerned citizens the opportunity to take responsibility for their lives and communities in a style not seen since... well, since citizens in  industrialized societies last needed to hold themselves and one another accountable for their individual and collective well-being.  New projects were initiated - "A CSA in Every Town!", "Eat Local Pledges", "Community Generated Energy" and more!  As information, bold ideas and the power to put them into practice exchanged hands, citizens rallied all over the state, creating an atmosphere of "can do" --- the only antidote to the despair generated by the news that "The American Way of Life", wasteful as it can be, could not be maintained in the manner to which we had grown accustomed.

The silver lining on this cloud has been the call to community, and some citizens are certainly rallying to that call.  Have we really made a difference, some ask?  I can only reflect on the changes that have occurred over the past year, and out on a limb once again, I'd have to say:  we have.  Is it enough?  Are we prepared?  Well, no, but you've got to start somewhere, and perhaps we can acknowledge that we have indeed made a fairly good start.

Good old "grassroots movements" are once again illustrating their enormous value to modern society.  Post Oil Solutions and ACoRN have led the way in demonstrating what a community can do when its members put their hearts, minds and hands to the wheel.  GEMPOG, in Greater East Montpelier, has utilized innovative methods of bringing peak oil awareness to the public, the most notable being their Peak Oil Power Point Presentation, and their "Energy Olympics", held in Montpelier this fall.  The First Branch Sustainability Project has enlisted over 90 homes in their solar hot water heater project and continues its Good Neighbor practices of linking community members to one another; there, as in other parts of the state, the feasibility of small hydro power generation is also being explored.  The Mad River Sustainability Group is educating its community to the assessed needs and resources of its region, and begining to identify what they'd need to do to meet them more locally and sustainably.  Citizens are seizing the day!  

In 2006, Peak Oil and related issues of energy conservation, renewables, energy efficiency, local agriculture and economies, smart(er) growth and sustainable communities have found themselves on the agendas of many statewide conferences (NOFA-VT, Renewable Energy Vermont, VCRD's Energy Summit and Vermonters Building Solutions - to name a few), whereas the year before, we may have seen these issues appearing on only one or two.  Legislators, planning commissions - including the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization - and other officials have heard from, reflected on and even begun to act upon the messages brought before them by peak oil educators; legislators participating in the Vermonts' Energy Future Modeling project also heard the news. Over the next year, the Vermont Rural Energy Council, a sub-unit of the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD), will study issues raised during the Energy Summit sponsored by VCRD at Lyndon State College this past August, and Peak Oil was at the table. The "Creative Economy" was recognized as an important component of our economy (bills H. 690 and S. 165).  There were a few bipartisan legislative gains (see "Under the Golden Dome", this issue); there are many more to be made.  And although Vermont House bill H. 654 was deemed "The Domesday Document" and "The Asteroid Bill", it certainly turned a few heads; its authors noted that elements of the bill ended up on the agendas of various House committees... we'll see what the new legislative session brings (be sure to write your representatives and ask what they are doing to ensure Vermont's food and energy security!)  

In the meantime, citizens in many Vermont communities continue to identify and begin to address the issues, exploring ways they can help one another create more sustainable, localized economies and agricultural resources, community energy solutions, and more.  What can I say?  The work of changing a culture is great, and can only be done person to person, community by community.  As the New Year dawns, I, for one, lift my glass to all of you who are working so hard to make this world, beginning in each community, a more sustainable, just and engaging place in which to live.  

A heartfelt thank you to all of our contributors in 2006.

Here are links to the Guest Editorials we posted in the eleven editions of The 2006 VPON Monthly News and Views.  We look forward to receiving your thoughtful contributions in the year to come as we aim to keep abreast of Vermonters' efforts to create a more sustainable and satisfying post-fossil fuel way of life.  

February - Holistic Management and Keyline Soilbuilding, by Abe Collins
"I spent much of my summer on my knees, with my arms up to my elbows in our pasture soils, and what I found there gave me a lot of hope." 

March - Where are We, and How Do We Go On from Here? by Lee Blackwell
"Perhaps the greatest work we can do right now is to maintain ourselves with dignity in the face of defensiveness, to cultivate caring and understanding for the other (no matter where they are on the issues), to listen, and to take the lead in framing the debate according to our values." 

April - An Eco-Idea, by Sherri Hawkins
"We need to truly build and share resources on all levels, to become self-sufficient and sustainable as a State, not just as organizations, businesses, towns and households."

May - We’re On Our Own, by Tim Stevensen
"...people are increasingly looking to themselves and their fellow citizens for the answers to their lives. They are creating the world they want to live in."

June - An Option for the Future:  The Champlain Parkway Plan, by Ron Krupp
"Burlington could deal with the problems of the high cost of gas and carbon dioxide pollution from cars, the housing crunch and sustainable/economic development - all with one stroke.  Of course, people would need to change their driving and shopping habits.  Do you remember how people resisted recycling cans and bottles?  Now they feel good about it."

July - Altimeter Readers vs. Parachute Packers, by Robert Riversong
"If we are primarily or exclusively focused on Peak Oil, then we are merely weathermen shouting into the wind (Chicken Littles) and difficult to hear.  We need to become Big Chickens and learn to cross the road.  Not just to get to the other side and not simply to rebuild the levees, but to build an ark."

August - How to Respond to Change: Meditations on the Motion of Cheese, by Carl Etnier
"Is blithely moving out into the Maze and randomly searching for new Cheese (ethanol, nuclear fission or fusion, electric cars) the most sensible approach? Or wouldn’t it be more helpful to try to stop some of the Cheese-destroying behavior that is occurring and chart where the best-tasting new Cheese lies before searching for it?"

September - Community Supported Energy, by Greg Pahl
"CSE projects are somewhat similar to Community Supported Agriculture. The main difference, however, is that instead of investing in potatoes, carrots, or cucumbers, with CSE, local residents invest in energy projects that provide greater energy security and a wide variety of other benefits."

October - Kick the Idling Habit - Join the Idle-Free VT Campaign, by Wayne Michaud
"How can we avoid unnecessary idling? Two things need to happen. First, people need to be made aware of the problem. Second, it's time for Vermont to join its neighboring states that already have idle-reduction laws."

NovemberNovember 4th Vermont Aerial Art Action to Slow Global Warming, an invitation from Bill McKibben
"We need to remind voters of their part in this effort--remind them to get out and cast ballots for the candidates they think are most likely to actually be able to slow global warming."

December - The Greensboro Small Hydro Project:: Making Waterways pay for Local Electricity, by Peter Roudebush
"Concerned people, in public and private life, who have heard about the project, point to other nearby waterways that could also generate income and electricity.  They applaud the idea of making and distributing electricity locally, less expensively and more securely, and environmentally benignly.  Surely, this is better than continuing to be heavily dependent upon suppliers from out-of-state."

Review the 2006 archives of the Vermont Peak Oil Network Monthly News and Views with the help of our Archives Index. _________________________________________________________________


 Guest Editorial  
What DO We Want for Vermont's Energy Future?
graciously submitted by Gaye Symington

In October Renewable Energy Vermont honored Speaker Gaye Symington for her leadership on renewable energy issues over the course of the last legislative biennium.  As she accepted this recognition, Symington noted that the honor really belongs to all members of the House and Senate who worked hard to pass meaningful legislation towards a safe, reliable and affordable energy future for Vermont.  Here is a copy of her remarks in accepting the award.

Thank you, and congratulations to the other honorees here today, particularly Senator Jeffords who has worked so hard on these issues in a very difficult national political environment.

I accept this honor on behalf of the legislators who worked hard on energy legislation, particularly the chairs of the lead committees in the House and Senate, Representative Robert Dostis and Senator Ginny Lyons.  It’s great to see that there are many legislators here from committees other than just the one with Energy in the title.  That points to the work that is possible in committees like Agriculture, Transportation, Commerce and Education.

Thank you, Renewable Energy Vermont, for your work to show us the challenges and opportunities ahead if we commit ourselves to a more responsible energy future for Vermont.

Vermont’s energy future remains a dull, nagging awareness, but not front and center for most Vermonters.  We know we have to deal with it, but we keep pushing it off because some of us are still somewhat insulated from the price shock that our neighboring states are already feeling.

Gas Prices spike and we carpool.  They dip and we revert to old habits.  We congratulate ourselves on commercial building codes that aim to lower energy consumption in increments.  But with some vision and follow-through there are those here who have designed sophisticated and comfortable work spaces that decrease energy consumption by 75%.  And, we are still stuck in the conversation about what we DON’T want, rather than actively engaging in a discussion of what we DO want for our energy future.

I am frustrated that it has taken so long to get the public engagement process to the starting gate, and I urge you all, as individuals, as leaders, as business managers, to encourage those around you to take part in this discussion once it does start. 

Don’t leave the discussion about Vermont’s energy future to those with an obvious short-term stake in the outcome.  We all have a stake in this discussion.

How so?

For one, choices that are difficult today become impossible later if we don’t act. 

•    We lose the opportunity for smaller scale energy generation to play its part if we wait until a large contract expires before acting – smaller scale generation can’t ramp up over night to fill that gap. 
•    We have no choice but to accommodate larger and larger distribution lines to avoid black-outs or brown-outs if we don’t get aggressive about conservation now.

And secondly, if we act NOW we can build on OPPORTUNITIES, rather than approaching everything with the notion of what we’re sacrificing.
•    Opportunity for coming together as a state to each take a part in creating a more secure energy future, rather than dividing ourselves when we reach deadlines without a cohesive plan in place and then settle for dangerous or damaging options whose impacts hit particular areas of the state disproportionately.
•    Opportunity for Vermont agriculture when we build a more rational food system and preserve farmland near our population centers
•    Opportunity for renewable energy entrepreneurs and good jobs when we provide incentives and take away the barriers to community-based energy generation and distribution.

My grandmother is in her 90’s and is very much part of my children’s lives.  In our conversations I am often reminded of the value her generation placed on frugality and thinking ahead.  They paid their bills, they saved, they planned for their children and grandchildren.

I suggest that we ask ourselves a question:  What will you tell your great-grandchildren when they ask what you did to prepare for their energy security? 

Will you have to say, “I took the risk of creating even more radioactive wastes for you to manage so that I could continue to super-cool my office in the summer, build televisions into refrigerator doors, provide light in unoccupied rooms, and blow-dry my hair every morning?”

Will you have to say, “I used the petroleum based products you might have needed for medical and surgical life-support products like heart valves, pharmaceuticals and anesthesia so I could fly lettuce 2,000 miles to my salad bowl - in September?”

How will you answer when your great grandchildren ask, “What did you do to preserve our share of our earth’s fossil fuel energy – our share of the inheritance from the earth’s evolution ?”

Will you have to answer them, “I burned it”?

We have a lot of work ahead of us to give them better answers.  I welcome your role in that work as we continue to move forward to a more responsible energy future for Vermont.
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Articles
Climate
Gov's Commission on Climate Change website
Recognizing the profound implications that global warming and climate variation could have on the economy, environment and quality of life in Vermont, Governor Jim Douglas issued Executive Order 07-05 establishing the Governor's Commission on Climate Change (GCCC) and asked it to:
    - Examine the real and potential effects of climate change on Vermont, including, but not limited to the impact of climate change on public health, natural resources and the economy;  
    - Produce an inventory of existing and planned actions that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions in Vermont;  
    - Educate the public about climate change and develop educational tools that will help Vermonters understand how they, as individuals, can play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions;  
    - Request input from representatives of the business, environmental, forestry, transportation, non-profit, higher education, municipal and other sectors regarding opportunities to reduce emissions and conserve energy; and  
    - Develop recommendations to the Governor to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Vermont, consistent with Vermont’s need for continued economic growth and energy security.

The Governor further asked that these recommendations, and all other pertinent information, be included in a Climate Change Action Plan to be submitted to him no later than September 1, 2007. Read more on the website: http://www.vtclimatechange.us/
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Senate Hearing (on Global Climate Change) a Dangerous Farce
Courtesy of Climate News
... I watched in horror as Inhofe's witnesses spouted outrageous claims intended to deceive and distort. Two were scientists associated with industry-funded think tanks. They described global warming as a "mass delusion" ...claiming that "global warming stopped in 1998" -- an anomalously warm year. They even recommended burning as much fossil fuel as possible to prevent another ice age. Unfortunately, the format does not allow for direct debate... But amid the collegiality and decorum that is the tradition in the Senate, no one stood up and called this hearing what it was: a gathering of liars and charlatans, sponsored by those industries who want to protect their profits. Later that day, Inhofe issued a press release that specifically highlighted my testimony, claiming that I "agreed" with him that the Kyoto Protocol "would have almost no impact on the climate even if all the nations fully complied." In fact, I had interrupted him during the hearing to object to this claim, reminding him that Kyoto was only conceived as a first step, and never as a long-term solution.  See more here.
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Phone and web briefing on the findings of the Northeast Climate Impact Assessment, "Climate Change in the U.S.Northeast."
January 18, 2007, 4:00 - 5:00 PM Eastern Time
Register at: Northeast Climate Impacts Seminar
You are invited to a special phone and web briefing on the findings of the Northeast Climate Impact Assessment, "Climate Change in the U.S.Northeast." Join UCS and authors of the report for a 40 minute presentation, followed by a question and answer period.

This new report by independent scientists and researchers in the Northeast, in collaboration with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), outlines the findings of new state-of-the-art research on recent and projected changes in the Northeast's regional climate, from rising temperatures to reduced snow cover, increased sea level, and more extreme weather events.

The report outlines detailed projections of what the Northeast's climate might look like during the twenty-first century following two different emissions scenarios: one where the climate is driven by continued high emissions where we remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels, causing heat-trapping emissions to rise rapidly over the course of the century; the other a climate driven by lower levels of emissions in which we shift away from fossil fuels in favor of clean energy technologies, resulting in declining emissions by mid-century. These starkly different scenarios show clearly that reducing heat-trapping emissions today and in the near future will leave a better world for our children and grandchildren.

Accompanying the 35-page report is a UCS-developed, publicly accessible summary of the findings and a brief fact sheet describing mitigation options suitable for the Northeast. The full report, climate summary and fact sheet are available for download at ClimateChoices.

About the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment. NECIA's aim is to develop and communicate a new assessment of climate change and associated impacts on key climate-sensitive sectors in the northeastern United States. The goal of the assessment is to combine state-of-the-art analyses with effective outreach to provide opinion leaders, policy makers, and the public with the best available science upon which to base informed choices about climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Analyses are currently underway to assess impacts of the climate changes described here on forests and agriculture, coastal and marine resources, human health, recreation and urban centers across the Northeast, as well as options for mitigation and adaptation. A major Synthesis Reportof these findings is expected in early 2007. For more about the NECIA and the technical papers behind the report, visit NortheastClimateImpacts.
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Global Warming: Changing CO
2urse

"We are no longer passive victims of the climage system's slow ocillagions; we are now, as a collective, atmospheric engineers."
- Alan Atkisson


Vermont Earth Institute announces its new Global Warming discussion course for the workplace, faith center or home.  Over four weeks, Global Warming: Changing CO2urse will take a look at personal responses to climate change and why society has been slow to respond; examine the history and science of global climate change and our participation in this ecological crisis; explore new strategies for addressing climate change and personal actions to mitigate the effects of global warming; and ask the question "What will it take to create a sustainable future?" The course invites participants to realize our individual and collective power to shape an effective response to climate change, enabling future generations to meet their needs.  

Vermont Earth Institute courses are community-driven; participants meet in a discussion-group format, purchasing a course book and facilitating the flow of the meetings themselves.  A VEI representative helps the group get oriented to this format.  For information about how to start this course in your community, contact Barbara Duncan, Vermont Earth Institute Director, at (802) 333-3664, or vei@valley.net.  See the website for additional information about VEI course offerings.
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Culture
New Year's Resolve- Empowerment
from the Editor of Climate Newsletter

When you delve into the issue of embodied energy of our purchases, the vision of relocalization becomes clear, both to reduce emissions and to prepare for a carbon-constrained future.

Going into a New Year is a time for reflection. With 2006 revealing deeper and accelerating climate crisis threats not only to polar bears, migratory animals and birds, corals and more, but to basic life processes like the oceans' photosynthesis that produces oxygen, it's time to whisk away the denial, the excuses, the sense of powerlessness, and all their underlying fears. We are not helpless! Joanna Macy gives a vision of how to overcome these negative feelings of being overwhelmed by the enormity of a problem and fully recognizing the power within - grieving for the problem, turning to the power within, accepting the responsibility, and evolving into a new lifestyle that is based on creating the needed change. No one can do it all, yet everyone can begin the transition.

Lists of actions to take are everywhere. Most are insipid - too weak to really get us were we need to be within any effective timeframe. We have let this one go too long. Fifteen years ago those actions would have been a grand start, but now we need rapid, pervasive changes. The argument that we Americans have to change the entire world is fallacious. The world is watching us very carefully, and our reluctance, indeed deep denial at the Federal level, sends the message that other nations don't have to face this carbon-reduction either. Once we wake up and charge ahead, we will not only change our society, but the world will follow. If we use coal plants, they want coal plants. If we want big cars, they want big cars. If we flaunt our throw-away society, they want filled trash dumpsters. If we want products flown from around the world, they do, too. Our media connect the world, where thousands of miles are converted into the seconds of telecommunications. Let's use this connection to show the world we do care, we are changing, we will become a low-carbon society- and soon!

Despairing hearts felt the Berlin wall would remain forever, yet it fell overnight. But did it really? Before the magnificent ripping apart of that wall brick by brick, a multitude of actions and shifts in awareness and attitudes had been occurring for years. Now, we have the seemingly endless wall of carbon emissions that we must take apart, carbon-emitter by carbon-emitter. We must prepare the foundation of change now. We just don't have decades of dawdling, and that is why every single person is the key to change. We can not wait for a guru to appear and fix this one for us. We have to reach within ourselves and make a deep commitment to drop the trivia of our lives, assess our skills, talents, connections, and begin our personal transition towards influencing our society, one organization, one family, at a time. Yes, we can - and should - become carbon neutral in our homes. But the real change occurs when we can get groups - whether our cities, our churches, our offices and businesses, our schools - to become carbon neutral. Then connect with other groups and show them how you did it. When you delve into the issue of embodied energy of our purchases, the vision of relocalization becomes clear, both to reduce emissions and to prepare for a carbon-constrained future. Unite with like-minded people who want, for example, to start an urban agriculture project or a farmers market. Join a solar energy or a voluntary simplicity group - or both. Scope out who's doing what around you and join the best. The old song tells us that 3 people make a movement- so… find your partners and make some exciting carbon-reduction happen! Then spread the word!

May your New Year empower you.  
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Vermont Campus Compact empowers campuses to find questions and answers
By Carl Etnier
Can college students systematically work to answers questions or carry out projects that ease adaptation to energy constraints? They already are. Middlebury senior Alyssa Jumars took a rough cut at estimating Addison County's energy consumption, energy sources, and expenditures on energy as her 2006 January term project. The Addison County Relocalization Network, ACoRN, guided her on the work and benefited from the results. Middlebury students have also taken leadership in a host of activities on campus to reduce energy use, like turning down dormitory thermostats from 70 to 68 degrees and deploying teams in day-glo green jumpsuits to replace incandescent lights with compact fluorescents. (They have replaced 2,400 so far.)  University of Vermont students have jumped in with many projects to make the campus more green, from participating in design teams for the new, LEED-rated construction to petitioning for local foods to be served in the student union.

Vermont Campus Compact (VCC) is an organization that can help students and faculty find questions and projects related to energy and the environment and provide resources for answering the questions or carrying out the projects. Founded in 1999 at the behest of the institutions' presidents, VCC brings together 22 Vermont colleges and universities. The purpose of the Compact is to direct the resources of higher education towards social, economic, and environmental sustainability while preparing students to solve practical problems in communities.  VCC builds higher education’s capacity to address critical issues by providing networking, development, grants and more to faculty, students and staff across the state. Vermont is not alone in this work; VCC is affiliated with a national Campus Compact and sister organizations in 32 other states.

Amy McGlashan, VCC Executive Director, says the largest student group in the country working on climate change issues grew out of a program VCC has offered. For seven years, VCC has offered a Problem-Based Service Learning Institute, teaching faculty how to work with students and community partners to get students to solve real-life, local problems as part of their course work. Jon Isham, a Middlebury College Economics and Environmental Studies Professor, participated in the Institute one year, and afterwards he designed a course in which 25 students met in a seminar called "Building the New Climate Movement." The seminar led to an international conference in January 2005, called "What Works? New Strategies for a Melting Planet." Out of that conference grew Middlebury's student climate change organization, the Sunday Night Group. McGlashan says that Jon Isham credits his training in the Problem-Based Service Learning Institute with giving him the resources to set up the seminar and organize the conference.

VCC reaches students directly through its annual Statewide Student Leadership Conference. The 2006 conference, held in November, included a track on environmental sustainability for the first time. It brought in both students around the state and business and non-profit organizations that promote green practices.

While much of VCC's work is general building capacity for colleges and universities to tackle community issues, they also work with member institutions to support specific programs. Sterling College, for example, has sought funding to train its students as researchers and reporters on the impact of climate change on the Arctic. VCC has offered to assist Sterling by identifying and creating venues for students to present their research findings; training students to lead community dialogues on climate change, to promote the effort as a model for community-based research, and in other ways.

In another project, Middlebury students in a class on environmental policy and economics researched the causes of sprawl by looking at what drove the outflow of residents from Middlebury to the surrounding towns, including property tax rates and housing availability. The students then presented the analysis to planning boards and other officials.

VCC and its member institutions offer a potential resource for local peak-oil groups. There must be hundreds of unanswered questions related to energy transition and relocalization. Some are catalog questions, e.g., where and how great are local micro-hydropower resources? Others are legal questions, e.g., what protections exist against overcutting of Vermont's forests, when oil shortages lead to significantly greater demand for wood heating? Still others are questions of vulnerability, like assessing what aspects of the health care system are most vulnerable to energy constraints. Another member of the Vermont Peak Oil Network and I are discussing with Amy McGlashan how VCC's resources can be used to answer these and similar questions. If you have ideas, please let me know at carl (at) etnier.net.
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100 Things You Can Do to Get Ready for Peak Oil (all year round!)
by Sharon Astyk, courtesy Energy Bulletin
SPRING
1.  Rethink your seed starting regimen. How will you do it without potting soil, grow lights and warming mats. Consider creating manure heated hotbeds, using your own compost, building a greenhouse, or coldframe, direct seeding early versions of transplanted crops, etc...
2.  Your local feed store has chicks right now - even suburbanites might consider ordering a few bantam hens and keeping them as exotic birds. Worth a shot, no? You can grow some feed in your garden for them, as well as enjoying the eggs.
3.  Order enough seeds for three years of gardening. If by next spring, we are all unable to get replacement seed, will you have produced everything you need? What if you can't grow for a year because of some crisis? Order extras from places with cheap seed like www.fedcoseeds.com, www.superseeds.com, www.rareseed.com.
4.  Yard sale season will begin soon in the warmer parts of the country, and auctions are picking up now in the North. Stocking up on things like shoes, extra coats, kids clothing in larger sizes, hand tools, garden equipment is simply prudent - and can save a lot of money.
5.  The real estate "season" will begin shortly, with families wanting to get settled in new homes during the summer, before the school year starts. If you are planning on buying or selling this year, now is the time to research the market, new locations, find that country property or the urban duplex with a big yard.
6.  Once pastures are flush, last year's hay is usually a bargain, and many farmers clean out their barns. manure and old hay are great soil builders for anyone.
7.  Check out your local animal shelter and adopt a dog or cat for rodent control, protection and friendship during peak oil.
8.  As things green up, begin to identify and use local wild edibles. Eat your lawn's dandelions, your daylily shoots, new nettles. Hunt for morels (learn what you are doing first!!) and wild onions. Get in the habit of seeing what food there is to be had everywhere you go.
9.  Set up rainbarrel or cistern systems and start harvesting your precipitation.
10. Planning to only grow vegetables? Truly sustainable gardens include a lot of pretty flowers, which have value as medicinals, dye and fiber plants, seasoning herbs, and natural cleaners and pest repellants. Instead of giving up ornamentals altogether, grow a garden full of daylilies, lady's mantle, dye hollyhocks and coreopsis, foxgloves, soapwart, bayberry, hip roses, bee balm and other useful beauties.
11. Get a garden in somewhere around you - campaign to turn open space into a community garden, ask if you can use a friend's backyard, get your company or church, synagogue, mosque or school to grow a garden for the poor. Every garden and experienced gardener we have is a potential hedge against the disaster.
12. Join a CSA if you don't garden, and get practice cooking and eating a local diet in season.
13. Eggs and greens are at their best in spring - dehydrated greens and cooked eggshells, ground up together add calcium and a host of other nutrients to flour, and you won't taste them. We're not going to be able to afford to waste food in the future, so get out of the habit now.
14. Make rhubarb, parsnip or dandelion wine for later consumption.
15. Now that warmer weather is here, start walking for more of your daily Needs. Even a four or five mile walk is quite reasonable for most healthy people.
16. Start a compost pile, or begin worm composting. Everyone can and should compost. Even apartment dwellers can keep worms or a compost bin and use the product as potting soil.
17. Use spring holidays and feasts as a chance to bring up peak oil with friends and family. Freedom and rebirth are an excellent subjects To lead into the Long Emergency.
18. Store the components of some traditional spring holiday foods, so that in hard times your family can maintain its traditions and celebrations.
19. With the renewal of the building season, now is the time to scavenge free building materials, like cinder blocks, old windows and scrap wood - with permission, of course.
20. Try and adapt to the spring weather early - get outside, turn down your heat or bank your fires, cut down on your fuel consumption as though you had no choice. Put on those sweaters one more time.
21. Shepherds are flush with wool - now is the time to buy some fleece and start spinning! Drop spindles are easy to make and cheap to use. Check out www.learntospin.com
22. Take a hard look back over the last winter - if you had had to survive on what you grew and stored last year, would you have made it? Early spring was famously the "starving time" when stores ran out and everyone was hungry. Remember, when you plan your food needs that not much produces early in spring, and in northern climates, A winter’s worth of food must last until May or June.
23. Trade cuttings and divisions, seeds and seedlings with your neighbors. Learn what's out there in your community, and sneak some useful plants into your neighbors' garden.
24. If you’ve got a nearby college, consider scavenging the dorm dumpsters. College students often leave astounding amounts of Stuff behind including excellent books, clothes, furniture, etc…
25. Say a schecheyanu, a blessing, or a prayer. Or simply be grateful for a series of coincidences that permit us to be here, in this place, as the world and the seasons come to life again. Try to make sure that this year, this time, you will take more joy in what you have, and prepare a bit better to soften the blow that is about to fall.


SUMMER
26. If you don't can or dehydrate, now is the time to learn. In most climates, you can waterbath can or dehydrate with a minimum of purchased materials, and produce is abundant and cheap. If you don't garden, check out your local farmstand for day-old produce or your farmer's market at the end of the day - they are likely to have large quantities they are anxious to get rid of. Wild fruits are also in abundance, or will be.
27. Consider dehydrating outer leaves of broccoli, cabbage, etc..., and grinding the dried mixture. It can be added to flours to increase the nutritional value of your bread.
28. Buy hay in the summer, rather than gradually over the winter. Now is an excellent time to put up simple shelters for hay storage, to avoid high early spring and winter prices.
29. Firewood, woodstoves and heating materials are at their cheapest right now. Invest now for winter. The same is true of insulating materials.
30. Back to school planning is a great time to reconsider transportation in light of peak oil. Can your children walk? Bike? If they cannot do either for reasons of safety (rather than distance) could an adult do so with them? Could you hire a local teenager to take them to school on foot or by wheel? Can you find ways to carpool, if you must drive? Grownups can do this too.
31. Also when getting ready to go back to school, consider the environmental impact of your scheduling and activities - are there ways to minimize driving/eating out/equipment costs/fuel consumption? Could your family do less in formal "activities" and more in family work?
32. Consider either home schooling or engaging in supplemental home Education. Your kids may need a large number of skills not provided by local public schools, and a critical perspective that they certainly won‘t learn in an institutional setting. Teach them.
33. Try and minimize air conditioning and electrical use during high Summer. Take cool showers or baths, use ice packs, reserve activity when possible for early am or evening. Rise at 4 am and get much of your work done then.
34. Consider adding a solar powered attic fan, available from Real Goods www.realgoods.com.
35. Don’t go on vacation. Spend your energy and money making your home a paradise instead. Throw a barbecue, a party or an open house, and invite the neighbors in. Get to know them.
36. Be prepared for summer blackouts, some quite extensive. Have emergency supplies and lighting at hand.
37. Practice living, cooking and camping outside, so that you will be comfortable doing so if necessary. Everyone in the family can Learn basic outdoors person skills.
38. Make your own summer camp. Instead of sending kids to soccer camp, create an at-home skills camp that helps prepare people for Peak oil. Invite the neighbor kids to join you. Have a blast!
39. Begin adapting herbs and other potted plants to indoor culture. Consider adding small tropicals - figs, lemons, oranges, even bananas can often be grown in cold climate homes. Obviously, if you live in a warm climate well, be prepared for some jealousy from the rest of us come February ;-).
40. Plant a fall garden in high summer - peas, broccoli, kale, lettuces, beets, carrots, turnips, etc… All of the above will last well into early winter in even the harshest climates, and with proper techniques or in milder areas, will provide you with fresh food all year long
41. Put up a new clothesline! Consider hand washing clothes outside, since everyone will probably enjoy getting wet (and cool) anyhow.
42. If you have access to safe waters, go fishing. Get some practice, and learn a new skill.
43. Encourage pick-up games at your house. Post-peak, children will need to know how to entertain themselves.
44. For teens, encourage them to develop their own home businesses over the summers. Whether doing labor or creating a product, you may rely on them eventually to help support the family. Or have them clean out your closets and attic and help you reorganize. Let them sell the stuff.
45. Buy a hand pushed lawn mower if you have less than 1 acre of grass. New ones are easy to push and pleasant, and will save you energy and that unpleasant gas smell.
46. Keep an eye out for unharvested fruits and nuts - many suburban and rural areas have berry and fruit bushes that no one harvests. Take advantage and put up the fruit.
47. Practice extreme water conservation during the summer. Mulch to reduce the need for irrigation. Bathe less often and with less water. Reduce clothes washing when possible.
48. This is an excellent time to toilet train children - they can run around naked if necessary and accidents will do no harm. Try and get them out of diapers now, before winter.
49. Consider replacing lawns with something that doesn’t have to be mown - ground covers like vetch, moss, even edibles like wintergreen or lingonberry, chamomile or mint.
50. If it is summer time, then the living is probably easy. Take some time to enjoy it - to picnic, to celebrate democracy (and try and bring one about ;-), To explore your own area, walk in the nearby woods.

FALL
51. Simple, cheap insulating strategies (window quilts and blankets, draft stoppers, etc...) are easily made from cheap or free materials - goodwill, for example, often has jeans, tshirts and shrunken wool sweaters, of quality too poor to sell, that can be used for quilting material and batting. They are available where I am for a nominal price, and I've heard of getting them free.
52. Stock up for winter as though the hard times will begin this year. Besides dried and canned foods, don't forget root cellarable and storable local produce, and season extension (cold frames, greenhouses, etc...) techniques for fresh food when you make your food inventory.
53. Thanksgiving sales tend to be when supermarkets offer the cheapest deals on excellent supplements to food storage, like shortening, canned pumpkin, spices, etc... I've also heard of stores given turkeys away free with grocery purchases - turkeys can then be cooked, canned and stored. Don't forget to throw in storable ingredients for your family's holiday staples - in hard times, any kind of celebration or continuity is appreciated.
54. Go leaf rustling for your garden and compost pile. If you happen into places where people leave their leaves out for pickup, grab the bags and set them to composting or mulching Your own garden.
55. Plant a last crop of over wintering spinach, and enjoy in the fall and again in spring.
56. Or consider planting a bed of winter wheat. Chickens can even graze it lightly in the fall, and it will be ready to harvest in time to use the bed for your fall garden. Even a small bed will make quite a bit of fresh, delicious bread.
57. Hit those last yard sales, or back to school sales and buy a few extra clothes (or cloth to make them) for growing children and extra shoes for everyone. They will be welcome in storage, particularly if prices rise because of trade issues or inflation.
58. The best time to expand your garden is now - till or mulch and let sod rot over the winter. Add soil amendments, manure, compost and lime.
59. Now is an excellent time to start the 100 mile diet in most locales - Stores and farms and markets are bursting with delicious local produce And products. Eat local and learn new recipes.
60. Rose hip season is coming - most food storage items are low in accessible vitamin C. Harvest wild or tame unsprayed rose hips, and dry them for tea to ensure long-term good health. Rose hips are delicious mixed with raspberry leaves and lemon balm.
61. Discounts on alcohol are common between Halloween and Christmas - this is an excellent time to stock up on booze for personal, medicinal, trade or cooking. Pick up some vanilla beans as well, and make your own vanilla out of that cheap vodka.
62. Gardening equipment, and things like rainbarrels go on sale in the late summer/early fall. And nurseries often are trying to rid themselves of perennial plants - including edibles and medicinals. It isn't too late to plant them in most parts of the country, although some care is needed in purchasing for things that have become rootbound.
63. Local honey will be at its cheapest now - now is the time to stock up. Consider making friends with the beekeeper, and perhaps taking lessons yourself.
64. Fall is the cheapest time to buy livestock, either to keep or for butchering. Many 4Hers, and those who simply don't want to keep excess animals over the winter are anxious to find buyers now. In many cases, at auction, I see animals selling for much less than the meat you can expect to obtain from their carcass is worth.
65. Most cold climate housing has or could have a "cold room/area" - a space that is kept cool enough during the fall and winter to dispense with the necessity of a refrigerator, but that doesn't freeze. If you have separate fridge and freezer, consider disconnecting your fridge during the cooler weather to save utility costs and conserve energy. You can build a cool room by building in a closet with a window, and insulating it with styrofoam panels
66. Now is a great time to build community (and get stuff done) by instituting a local "work bee" - invite neighbors and friends to come help either with a project for your household, or to share in some good deed for another community member. Provide food, drink, tools and get to work on whatever it is (building, harvesting, quilting, knitting - the sky is the limit), and at the same time strengthen your community. Make sure that next time, the work benefits a different neighbor or community member.
67. Most local charities get the majority of their donations between now and December. Consider dividing your charitable donations so that they are made year round, but adding extra volunteer hours to help your group handle the demands on them in the fall.
68. Many medicinal and culinary herbs are at their peak now. Consider learning about them and drying some for winter use.
69. If there is a gleaning program near you (either for charity or personal use) consider joining. If not, start one. Considerable amounts of food are wasted in the harvesting process, and you can either add to your storage or benefit your local shelters and food pantries.
70. Dig out those down comforters, extra blankets, hats with the earflaps, flannel jammies, etc... You don't need heat in your sleeping areas - just warm clothes and blankets.
71. Learn a skill that can be done in the dark or by candlelight, while sitting with others in front of a heat source. Knitting, crocheting, whittling, rug braiding, etc... can all be done mostly by touch with little light, and are suitable for companionable evenings. In addition, learn to sing, play instruments, recite memorized speeches and poetry, etc... as something to do on dark winter evenings.
72. While I wouldn't expect deer or turkey hunting to be a major food source in coming times (I would expect large game to be driven back to near-extinction pretty quickly), it is worth having those skills, and also the skills necessary to catch the less commonly caught small game, like rabbits, squirrel, etc...
73. Use a solar cooker or parabolic solar cooker whenever possible to prepare food. Or eat cool salads and raw foods. Not only won’t you heat up the house, but you’ll save energy.
74. A majority of children are born in the summer early fall, which suggests that some of us are doing more than keeping warm ;-). Now is a good time to get one’s birth control updated ;-).
75. Celebrate the harvest - this is a time of luxury and plenty, and should be treated as such and enjoyed that way. Cook, drink, eat, talk, sing, pray, dance, laugh, invite guests. Winter is long and comes soon enough. Celebrate!


WINTER
76. Your local adult education program almost certainly has something useful to teach you - woodworking, crocheting, music training, horseback riding, CPR, herbalism, vegetarian cookery... take advantage of people who want to teach their skills
77. Get serious about land use planning - even if you live in a suburban neighborhood, you can find ways to optimize your land to produce the most food, fuel and barterables. Sit down and think hard about what you can do to make your land and your life more sustainable in the coming year.
78. The Winter lull is an excellent time to get involved in public affairs. No matter how cynical you tend to be, nothing ever changed without engagement. So get out there. Stand for office. Join. Volunteer.
79. Now is the time to prepare for illness - keep a stock of remedies, including useful antibiotics (although know what you are doing, don't just buy them and take them), vitamin C supplements (I like elderberry syrup), painkillers, herbs, and tools for handling even serious illness by yourself. In the event of a truly severe epidemic of flu or other illness, avoiding illness and treating sick family members at home whenever possible may be safer than taking them to over-worked and over-crowded hospitals (or, it may not - but planning for the former won't prevent you from using the hospital if you need it).
80. Most schools would be delighted to have volunteers come in and talk about conservation, gardening, small livestock, home-scale mechanics, ham radio, etc..., and most homeschooling families would be similarly thrilled. Consider offering to teach something you know that will be helpful post-peak (although I wouldn't recommend discussing peak oil with any but the oldest teenagers, and not even that without their parents permission
81. Now is the time to convince your business, synagogue, church, school, community center to put a garden on that empty lawn. If you start the campaign now, you can be ready to plant in the spring. Produce can be shared among participants or offered to the needy.
82. The one-two punch of rising heating oil and gas prices may well be what is needed to make your family and friends more receptive to the peak oil message. Try again. At the very least, emphasize the options for mitigating increased economic strain with sustainable practices.
83. Get together with neighbors and check in on your area's elderly and disabled people. Make a plan that ensures they will be checked on during bad weather, power outages, etc... Offer help with stocking up for winter, or maintaining equipment. And watch for signs that they are struggling economically.
84. Work on raising money and getting help with local poverty-abatement Programs. After the holidays, people struggle. They get hungry and cold. Remember, besides the fact that it is the right thing to do, the life you save may be your own.
85. Get out and enjoy the cold weather. It is hard to adapt to colder temperatures if you spend all your time huddled in front of a heater. Ski, snowshoe, sled, shovel, have a snowball fight, build a hut, go winter camping, but get comfortable with the cold, snowy world around you.
86. Have your chimney(s) inspected, and learn to clean your own. Learn to care for your kerosene lamps, to use candles safely, and how to use and maintain your smoke and CO detectors and fire extinguishers. Winter is peak fire season, so keep safe.
87. Grow sprouts on your windowsill.
88. Now is an excellent time to reconsider how you use your house. Look around - could you make more space? House more people? Do projects more efficiently? Add greenhouse space? Put in a homemade composting toilet? Work with what you have to make it more useful.
89. If a holiday gift exchange is part of your life, make most of your gifts. Knit, whittle, build, sew, or otherwise create something beautiful for the people you love.
90. If someone wants to buy you something, request a useful tool or preparedness item, or a gift certificate to a place like Lehmans or Real Goods. Considering giving such gifts to friends and family - a solar crank radio, an LED flashlight, cast iron pans, These are useful and appreciated items whether or not you believe in peak oil.
91. Do a dry run in the dead of winter. Turn out all the power, turn off the water. Turn off all fossil-fuel sources of heat, and see how things go for a few days. Use what you learn to improve your preparedness, and have fun while doing it.
92. Learn to mend clothing, patch and make patchwork out of old clothes.
93. Write letters to people. The post is the most reliable way of communicating, And letters last forever.
94. Make a list of goals for the coming year, and the coming five years. Start Keeping records of your goals and your successes and failures.
95. Keep a journal. Your children and grandchildren (or someone else’s) may want To know what these days were like.
96. Wash your hands frequently, and avoid stress. Stay healthy so that you can be useful To those around you.
97. For those subject to depression or anxiety, winter can be hard. Find ways to relax, decompress and use work as an antidote to fear whenever possible. Get outside on sunny days, and try and exercise as much as possible to help maintain a positive attitude.
98. Memorize a poem or song every week. No matter what happens to you, no one can ever take away the music and words you hold in your mind. You can have them as comfort and pleasure wherever you go, and in whatever circumstances.
99. Take advantage of heating stoves by cooking on them. You can make soups or stews on top of any wood stove or even many radiators, and you can build or buy a metal oven That sits on top of woodstoves to bake in.
100. Winter is a time of quiet and contemplation. Go outside. Hear the silence. Take pleasure in what you have achieved over the past year. Focus on the abundance of this present, this day, rather than scarcity to come.
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Funding for Community Projects
1) Vermont Community Development Program: Fundable projects include public facilities and public services. Vermont local governments are eligible. Closes 1/30/07. [View  http://www.dhca.state.vt.us/VCDP/Application/cdindex.htm]

2) Sustainable Future Fund: Projects that help address the challenges of building a sustainable society; projects that develop models of sound ecological practice. Closes 2/1/07. [View  http://www.vermontcf.org/guidelines-forms/sustainable-future.html,]
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The Right to Pursue Powerdown: Seeking alternative lifestyles post-peak
Published on 13 Dec 2006 by Energy Bulletin. Archived on 13 Dec 2006
by Richard Embleton

All of [the] things and practices that will be critical for self-sufficiency when we get well down the energy decline slope are viewed today as threats to the aesthetic enjoyment urbanites have for their chemical lawns and GMO flower gardens. If you have ever run afoul of a neighbourhood committee you will have seen this conflict in glorious action.

How are those who have the courage to look ahead to th